AAP national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal filed his nomination papers from the New Delhi Assembly constituency on January 21 evening, the last day for filing the poll papers, a party leader said.
Mr. Kejriwal had to wait at the Jamnagar House for over six hours before filing the nomination.
Holding token number 45, Mr. Kejriwal was seen waiting to file his nomination for the New Delhi Assembly seat on.
“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,” Mr. Kejriwal said.
Party leaders claimed that 35 candidates with incomplete papers were insisting that they will not allow the Chief Minister to file unless their nominations are filed and saw a “conspiracy”.
According to procedures, while nominations can be filed till 3 p.m., candidates who have collected tokens to file their papers before the stipulated time are allowed to do so whenever their numbers arrive.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said no matter how much the BJP conspires they will not be able to stop Mr. Kejriwal from filing his nomination.
“BJP, 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.
“Your conspiracies will not yield any result,” he said, tagging AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj’s tweet who alleged that around 35 candidates were sitting at the office along with the chief minister without proper nomination papers or even 10 proposers.
“They (candidates) are insisting unless their papers are complete and they file their nominations, they won’t allow Chief Minister to file nomination,” he said.
Responding to Mr. Bhardwaj’s tweet, Mr. Kejriwal said it does not matter as many of them are filing their nominations for the first time.
“Doesn’t matter. Many of them are filing for the first time. They are bound to make mistakes. We also made mistakes the first time. We should hand hold them. I am enjoying waiting with them. They are all part of my family,” Mr. Kejriwal said in a tweet.
Delhi goes to polls on February 8 and counting will take place on February 11. BJP has fielded Sunil Yadav against Kejriwal while Congress has fielded Romesh Sabharwal.
