817 candidates in poll fray

NEW DELHI: As many as 817 candidates are ready to try their fortune in 70 Assembly constituencies of Delhi, which is going to polls on December 1.
Despite stringent screening methods imposed by the Election Commission (EC), 1029 people have filed their nominations, of which only 862 were found valid. However, 45 of them have decided to withdrew on the last day of nomination withdrawal on November 17.
"The strict screening process did not dither people to come forward to file their nominations.There was a foolproof method for screening all the candidates," EC officials said.
From Narsipur constituency, a maximum number of 25 candidates have filed nominations. It was a record third-time for the area since in 1993 and 1998 this constituency had the highest number of 45 and 47 respectively.
Mangolpuri constituency has four candidates - the minimum number of those seeking their electoral future at the hustings - followed by Sarojini Nagar (five candidates) and Tri Nagar (six).
During the last Assembly elections in 1998, Shkurbasti had the least number of contestants - five.
Altogether there were 815 candidates during the last Assembly elections and of the 8,420,141 electorates 4,124,986 exercised their franchise.
There were 4,85,1199 men and 3,568,942 women electorates in 1998 of which 2,468,791 men and 1,656,195 women cast their votes.
An interesting aspect in this election is that electronic voting machines (EVM) would be used in all polling booths and in six constituencies, where there are more than 16 candidates, two ballotting units of electronic voting machines would be used as the machines can include only 16 candidates.
According to EC officials, on the last day of nomination withdrawal on November 17, there was a scramble for election symbols by the independent candidates. About 70 free symbols were in great demand which included cake, hat, gas stoves, lock, key etc.
Independent candidates were of the opinion that they would prefer symbols that could be easily identified by the voters.