Stage set for Bawana bypoll

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 22

The Bawana assembly by-election tomorrow is being keenly contested between three major political opponents — the BJP, AAP and the Congress – with each eyeing a victory hoping to reassert its popularity among residents in the capital.

Nearly three lakh people are eligible to cast votes at 379 polling stations set up across the constituency in Northwest Delhi. Results of the bypoll will be announced on August 28.

Though the AAP enjoys an overwhelming majority in the assembly, a victory in the bypoll would be a shot in the arm for the party after successive setbacks in the civic polls, the Rajouri Garden Assembly by-election and the assembly elections in Punjab and Goa.

The Kejriwal-led party has pitched Ramchandra from the constituency where he will take on the BJP’s nominee Ved Prakash whose resignation from the MLA post and followed by leaving the AAP had actually necessitated the bypolls. Prakash joined the BJP in March this year.

The BJP, which has just four members in the 70-member assembly, hopes to maintain its winning streak in the city while the other major contender Congress is hoping to open its account after being relegated to zero in the 70-member Delhi Legislative Assembly. The Congress has fielded its former three-time MLA from Bawana, Surender Kumar.

EVMs equipped with voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) will be used in the bypoll, as per a statement from the Chief Electoral Officer, Delhi.

The number of male, female and third gender electors are 1,64,114; 1,30,143; and 25, respectively. The average number of voters per polling station stands at 776. Of 379 polling stations in the constituency, 311 have less than 1,000 registered electors, while 68 have more than 1,000 registered electors, it said.