After a long six-hour wait at the Returning Officer’s office, Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Admi Party (AAP) candidate Arvind Kejriwal finally filed his nomination for the upcoming Delhi Assembly election on Tuesday evening.
Today was the last day for filing of nominations for the candidates. Arvind Kejriwal had earlier planned to file his nomination on Monday itself but due to being stuck in the massive roadshow, he failed to reach the RO office on time, which was 3 pm.
As being the last day, around 100 candidates showed up to file their nominations. In the token-system for the candidates, Kejriwal got token number 45 which itself indicated that he has to sit for a long duration to get the work done.
Kejriwal had reached the RO office around 12.30 pm accompanied by his family, including parents, and party leaders Pankaj Gupta and Gopal Mohan.
Waiting to file my nomination. My token no is 45. There are many people here to file nomination papers. Am so glad so many people participating in democracy.
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) January 21, 2020
AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged, “Around 35 candidates sitting at RO office with CM, without proper nomination papers, without even 10 proposers. They are calling their proposers on phone to come.”
“They are insisting unless their papers are complete and they file Nomination, they won’t allow CM to file Nomination,” he added.
However, Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter to calm down Bharadwaj claiming the mistakes done by the first-timers are acceptable.
Doesn’t matter. Many of them r filing for the first time. They r bound to make mistakes. We also made mistakes the first time. We shud hand hold them. I am enjoying waiting wid them. They r all part of my family. https://t.co/9s8hRDnjSU
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) January 21, 2020
Right before going to file the nomination papers, Kejriwal while talking to media said, “The journey for the next five years starts from here. Like the good work that has happened in Delhi, I hope in the next five years also there will be good work.”
He said parties are forming an alliance in Delhi against the AAP.
“The BJP, Congress and many other parties have come together… the LJP, JJP, JD(U) and RJD. For the first time, there is such a coalition in Delhi. All these parties only have one aim: ‘defeat Kejriwal’.
“And I have only one aim, how to end corruption and take Delhi forward. They are saying ‘defeat Kejriwal’, I am saying make schools better, hospitals better, give electricity. Their only aim is to defeat Kejriwal,” the AAP chief added.
There was a huge crowd of candidates at the SDM office since morning as Tuesday was the last date for filing nomination.
The supporters of other candidates accused the police of giving “VIP treatment” to the Chief Minister. Kejriwal faced protest from the candidates and their supporters contesting against him at the RO office.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had failed to file his nomination papers on Monday due to a massive roadshow.
Kejriwal is seeking re-election from the seat for the third time — having won in 2013 and 2015 with a vote percentage of 53.46 and 64.34 respectively.
Delhi is going to polls on February 8 and the results will be declared on February 11.