After 6-Hour Wait, Arvind Kejriwal Files Nomination for Delhi Assembly Polls on Deadline Day

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal filed his nomination on Tuesday after waiting for more than six hours. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) held the BJP responsible for the delay, a charge dismissed as “drama” by the saffron party.

Kejriwal, who was scheduled to file his papers on Monday, could not do so after he was delayed due to his own roadshow. Tuesday was the last day of filing of nominations for the February 8 Assembly polls, the results of which will be declared on February 11.

Accompanied by his family members, including parents and senior party leaders, Kejriwal reached the office of the Returning Officer (RO) 12.30 pm. After six hours and 20 minutes, he filed his nomination from the New Delhi constituency, which he won in 2015 by a margin of over 27,000 votes.

While waiting for his turn, Kejriwal said in a tweet, “My token no. is 45. There are many people here to file nomination papers. Am so glad so many people participating in democracy.”

A number of AAP leaders alleged that around 35 candidates with incomplete papers were insisting they will not allow Kejriwal to file unless their nominations were filed.

“No matter how much you conspire, you will not be able to stop Kejriwal from filing his nomination or from becoming the chief minister for the third time,” Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said in a tweet, tagging the BJP. “Your conspiracies will not yield any result.”

AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj in a tweet earlier had alleged around 35 candidates were sitting in the New Delhi SDM’s Jamnagar House office, along with Kejriwal, without proper nomination papers or even 10 proposers.

BJP dismisses allegations

Hitting back at the AAP, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor described the allegations as “drama”, claiming the delay was “orchestrated” by the AAP itself.

“If they wanted, they could have reached at 11 in the morning but they wanted TV footage for which they did all this drama,” he said.

The Election Commission later on Tuesday issued a clarification, denying any deliberate delay in the filing of Kejriwal's nomination.

Those filing their nominations before Kejriwal included sacked employees of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC).

Bhardwaj called it a “nuisance”, adding an organised group of 50 candidates was taking tokens to file nomination at New Delhi every day for the last four days.

“But they were not filing nominations. They just wanted to harass Kejriwal. This situation was very much in the knowledge of the RO & DM,” he said.

The DTC drivers and conductors, who lost their contract jobs, had last year floated a political party -- Mazdoor Ekta Party. However, just one among them filed from the party, while close to 30 sacked employees are contesting the election as an Independent against Kejriwal.

Manoj Sharma, one of the members of the DTC Contractual Employees Union who filed his papers as an Independent, said they do not have any job.

“This is like a job fair for us. We want a job and this is that for us. We are contesting against Kejriwal to save the Constitution and the common man,” news agency IANS quoted Sharma as saying.

When asked if this was just to trouble the AAP leader, Sharma said the DTC employees have a strong vote base and will win against Kejriwal.

(With inputs from agencies)