Delhi, the capital of India, is an important Union Territory for many other reasons too. Important national movements and political parties have arisen from the grounds of Delhi. The recent movement against corruption led by Anna Hazare and its political counterpart movement in the form of the Aam Aadmi Party led by Arvind Kejriwal are some of the examples of such movements and parties that have a potential to affect the nationwide democratic politics. Therefore the regulation of free and fair elections in Delhi is a task of utmost priority for the concerned authority. Moreover such a task requires that the authority in charge is highly efficient and handles this regulation with utmost swiftness and precision. The Election Commission Delhi is indeed the authority that fits the shoe of a highly efficient election regulation authority for this capital territory.

Aims and Goals of Election Commission Delhi

During the elections:-

• Keeping a check on poll rigging and other malicious poll distorting activities during the elections.
• Keeping a check on illegitimate campaigning, over exceeded campaign expenditures etc.
• Keeping a check on hate speeches and hence protection of the class and the mass sentiments.
• Keeping a check and resolving the voter grievances with Quick Action Mechanism. Voter Grievances could be of following types:-

1. Deletion of voter names from the Voters’ List, without prior notice.
2. Bogus Voting.
3. Booth Capturing.
4. Votes for money or kind.( Not strictly a grievance for the voters, but surely so for the elections and the democracy)
5. Poll Machine Rigging.
6. Threats to the voters.
7. Stolen Voter ID Cards.
8. Wrongly printed Voter ID Cards.
9. Wrong voter list information.
10. Faulty Polling Machines.

Although many of these occurrences are hard to find in the Capital Delhi but still the Election Commission of Delhi also called the Chief Election Office of Delhi goes an extra mile to ensure they don’t occur. And still if any of the above events occur, the Commission shows swift action either directly or through the institutions and infrastructure created by it.

For example, in case of Wrong Voter List Information or Wrongly printed Voter IDs, the CEO Delhi requires the Voters themselves to fill the Voter Registration Form No. 8 for correction of the mistakes since the intervention of the Office is not possible at such a micro level.

Prior to the elections:-

Before the elections, the Election Commission Delhi seeks to educate voters and make them aware about the importance of voting and participation in the democracy. It also creates conditions favorable for building up voter sentiment in order to achieve a higher voter turn out in the approaching election. The Success story of election commission of India makes it evident that the commissions of all the states indeed achieved this goal in the Lok Sabha 2014 elections and so did the CEO Delhi.

The Election Commission Delhi also organized highly successful and large-scale voter registration drives where new voters were registered in large numbers. These drives were also targeting the removal of invalid names from the voters’ lists and hence filtering these lists in order to ensure easier data management for the authorities and the officials alike.

[You can always help the Election Commission of your state, by suggesting deletions from the electoral roll of your constituencies. You can object to any entry into the voters’ list by filling the voter form no. 7; http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/forms/FORM7.pdf]

The voters can also access the list of claims and objections on the Voter List entries by visiting this link:- http://eci.nic.in/eci_main1/linkto_claimsobj.aspx

The Election Commission of Delhi Website

The CEO or the Election Commission Delhi website is a one stop web page for all the prospected and existing voters. Through this website, the Citizens of Delhi Could:-

• Register as new voters.
• Check the status of their Voter ID Card application.
• Check their name in the electoral roll of their constituencies.
• Download all the require voter registration and correction forms.
• Know their assembly and parliamentary constituencies.
• Know the location of Voter Centers.
• Know about their Booth Level Officers.
• Keep themselves updated with the election results and statistics.

To visit the CEO Delhi website, just click the image below:-

The website is a great place for all the voters who want to stay updated with the actions of the election commission of Delhi. The website is even regularly updated with images and videos from the latest CEO Delhi organized events and functions. The website also showcases its latest voter awareness campaigns. Recently, Aamir Khan(the famous Bollywood star and social activist) was announced by the ECI, as its national icon. This move was aimed at connecting the youth with the whole democratic and electoral system. The videos and audio of the special shoots with Aamir Khan can also be found on this website.

The Election Commission of Delhi and the Mobile Features

One may think that the Election Commission has only developed the online infrastructure for the voter betterment. That is not true, the commission has made efforts to mark its presence on all possible platforms. That includes the mobile phone too. Let us see the possibilities created by the CEO Delhi for voters using their mobile phone.

Following things can be done by the existing and new voters alike, by the means of their cell phone:-

• Access the Voter Helpline number of the Election Commission Delhi. Voters can seek help from the officials by dialing the following numbers; 1950 or 1800111400
• Check EPIC(Electors Photo Identity Card) Details. This can be done by sending a simple SMS. To receive these details, just Type EPIC<Space>Voter ID Card No.  and send right away to 9211728082
• You can follow the above method to check your name in the Electoral Roll too.

Using the CEO Delhi Website to Research about your Candidates

You can also use the Election Commission of Delhi website to know everything about the elected or to be elected candidates. This is possible because the commission uploads all the affidavits submitted by all the candidates from each of the constituencies. These affidavits tell you about the Criminal, Educational, Financial as well as the social background of the election candidates from your constituency. Thus helping you decide and vote for the most deserving candidate.

Knowing about the criminal cases against the running candidates is a very important aspect when it comes to choosing the right one. There are very negative implications in a democracy when the electors go with negligible research before going to the polling booth and end up choosing a candidate not suitable for their constituency.

Therefore the habit of affidavit research must become much wore wide-spread among the voters and hence the election commissions of each of the states must add another goal to their list. This goal is to popularize the fact that the voters are free to inquire the personal information about the candidates for whom they might vote for.

The Citizens and Voters of Delhi can access the following link in order to read the affidavits submitted by their constituency candidates:- http://ceodelhi.gov.in/OnlineERMS/WriteReadData/Affidavits/ECICandidateAffidavit.htm

Also once the results are out, it is important to know  your elected MLA or MP. This can also be done using the election commission of Delhi website. Just click the link to know about your MP/MLA:- http://ceodelhi.gov.in/Content/mp_mla.aspx

The Party-Wise Performance Statistics Available on the CEO Delhi Website

The Election Commission of Delhi Website presents a link to a detailed analysis and statistics of the seats won by different parties in the Lok Sabha 2014 election. The analysis shows that the BJP finally gained a huge majority and the UPA Govt. had to vacant the rule after 2 consecutive terms. Below are the nationwide no. of seats won by political parties of India.

ALL INDIA Result Status
Status Known For 543 out of 543 Constituencies
Party	Won	Leading	Total
Bharatiya Janata Party	282	0	282
Communist Party of India	1	0	1
Communist Party of India (Marxist)	9	0	9
Indian National Congress	44	0	44
Nationalist Congress Party	6	0	6
Aam Aadmi Party	4	0	4
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	37	0	37
All India N.R. Congress	1	0	1
All India Trinamool Congress	34	0	34
All India United Democratic Front	3	0	3
Biju Janata Dal	20	0	20
Indian National Lok Dal	2	0	2
Indian Union Muslim League	2	0	2
Jammu & Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party	3	0	3
Janata Dal (Secular)	2	0	2
Janata Dal (United)	2	0	2
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha	2	0	2
Kerala Congress (M)	1	0	1
Lok Jan Shakti Party	6	0	6
Naga Peoples Front	1	0	1
National Peoples Party	1	0	1
Pattali Makkal Katchi	1	0	1
Rashtriya Janata Dal	4	0	4
Revolutionary Socialist Party	1	0	1
Samajwadi Party	5	0	5
Shiromani Akali Dal	4	0	4
Shivsena	18	0	18
Sikkim Democratic Front	1	0	1
Telangana Rashtra Samithi	11	0	11
Telugu Desam	16	0	16
All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen	1	0	1
Apna Dal	2	0	2
Rashtriya Lok Samta Party	3	0	3
Swabhimani Paksha	1	0	1
Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party	9	0	9
Independent	3	0	3
Total	543	0	543

The Voter Share Infographic

The following is the infographic extracted from the Election Commission of India Results website:- eciresults.nic.in This pie-chart shows the percentage of votes received by the above mentioned political parties.

 

Election Results in Delhi

In Delhi, there are 7 Lok-Sabha constituencies. In the Lok Sabha 2014 elections, the Bhartiya Janta Party bagged all of these 7 seats. An analysis of voter share denotes the fact that BJP was the first choice of the voters in Delhi, whereas the Aam Aadmi Party scored second on the voter share report card.

Here is a list of winning BJP Candidates in New Delhi:-

1. Dr. HarshVardhan(Chandani Chowk)
2. Maheish Giri(East Delhi)
3. Meenakshi Lekhi(New Delhi)
4. Manoj Tiwari(North East Delhi)
5. Udit Raj(North West Delhi)
6. Ramesh Bidhuri(South Delhi)
7. Sahib Singh Verma(West Delhi)