The suspended members continued their sit-in on the lawns of the parliament complex till about 11:30 AM after spending the night there in protest. They were suspended over Sunday’s unprecedented chaos and “unruly behaviour” in the Rajya Sabha when two controversial farm bills were passed. The Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman is at the heart of opposition protests; their no-confidence motion against him was rejected yesterday by Chairman Venkaiah Naidu.

A number of opposition parties led by the Congress staged a walkout from the Rajya Sabha today, demanding that the suspension of eight members be revoked. The Congress was the first to walkout from the house along with members of the Aam Aadmi Party, Trinamool Congress and Left parties. Despite the opposition boycott, the Rajya Sabha proceeded with the debate on the third farm bill, chaired by the Deputy Chairman.

Mr Azad, the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, spelt out three demands centred on ensuring that the minimum support price (MSP) is not weakened, and their “request” of revoking the suspension of the eight members. He demanded that the government brings a bill which should ensure private players don’t procure food grains below the MSP fixed by the government. The opposition also demanded for the MSP to be based on the recommendations of the MS Swaminathan committee report. Thirdly, the opposition demanded that the government or the Food Corporation Of India ensure that crops are procured from the farmers at the fixed minimum support price.

Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh went to the protesting members with tea and served it in cups this morning on the lawns of the parliament complex. The suspended members rebuffed his “tea diplomacy”, calling him “anti-farmer”.

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Exit polls have predicted another term for Arvind Kejriwal, who came to power in 2015 with a massive mandate – forgiven after his apology for the 49-day government of 2014.

The campaign has been bitter and polarised, the political discourse bogged down by hate speeches. A last-minute controversy arose after the voting, over the Election Commission’s delay in announcing the final polling figures.

The Chief Minister has given Delhi what he called a “10-point guarantee card”, which includes free power, 24-hour drinking water on tap, a clean Yamuna and a world-class education to every child. In its manifesto, AAP has also promised round-the-clock markets in the model of Mumbai and expanding the metro network into the “world’s largest”.

The BJP confident that its seven-out-of-seven-score in last year’s Lok Sabha polls in Delhi augurs better fortune. In the run-up to the polls, the party pushed in its 270 MPs, 70 union ministers and state leaders to seek votes. Union minister Amit Shah contributed to the final push with a door-to-door campaign.

Election Held in the shadow of the protests over the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act, the National Population Register and the National Register of Citizens, the two-month campaign has been divisive, with the rhetoric on a downward spiral. “Goli maaro” slogans were raised at the meetings of several BJP leaders and the Chief Minister was publicly called a “terrorist” by a union minister.

-BJP’s Kapil Mishra leading from Model Town by a margin of 98 votes.

-AAP’s Manish Sisodia leading from Patparganj by a margin of 112 votes.

-Official EC trends: Aam Aadmi Party leading on 32 seats and Bharatiya Janata Party leading on 16 seats.

-Official EC trends: Aam Aadmi Party leading on 27 seats and Bharatiya Janata Party leading on 16 seats.

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The Aam Aadmi Party chief arrived with his mother, father and wife at the sub-divisional magistrate’s office in Jamnagar House in the afternoon and left when it was dark because of a long queue of 66 candidates who had suddenly surfaced on the last day. Most of them were Independents.

Mr Kejriwal had missed filing his papers on Monday as he got held up by his own massive roadshow. He is contesting from the prestigious New Delhi Assembly constituency.

On Tuesday, 66 candidates showed up to file their nomination at the SDM’s office in Jamnagar House. Holding token no. 45, Mr Kejriwal tweeted: “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.”

However, the Chief Minister’s deputy Manish Sisodia tweeted, “BJP planted 45 people in the line before Arvind Kejriwal. The Election Commission is deliberately giving each candidate half-an-hour or one hour… even those whose papers are not complete or those who don’t have proposers.”

Mr Sisodia added, “BJP people, do whatever you want, you cannot stop Kejriwal from filing his nomination or from becoming Chief Minister for the third time. Your conspiracy will not succeed.”

One of the aspiring candidates, who claimed he had been betrayed by the AAP leader when he was part of the Anna Hazare anti-corruption campaign, said: “Kejriwal has no option but to stand in the queue like all of us. Let him also see what aam aadmi has to undergo in his day-to-day life in any government office.”

Kejriwal, who has twice won the constituency, will be facing first-timers from the BJP and the Congress in the upcoming February 8 elections.

The BJP has fielded its Delhi unit Yuva Morcha president Sunil Yadav, and the Congress has pitched its former student leader, Romesh Sabharwal.

Soon after the BJP named Yadav as its candidate from the New Delhi seat, AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj claimed that the saffron party had surrendered before the polls.

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The teams, including central and state observers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will visit the areas under its 14 district units with boxes, in which the lists of probables will be deposited, he added.

Each district covers five Assembly segments, Tiwari said, adding that the saffron party had formed core committees for each of the 70 Assembly constituencies, which will recommend the names to be considered for ticket distribution.

The Delhi polls will be held on February 8 and the counting of votes will be taken up on February 11.

The notification for the polls will be issued on January 14, while the last date for withdrawal of candidature is January 24. With the issuance of the notification, the nomination process will commence, the Election Commission said on Monday.

Tiwari said each core committee comprised the party in-charge of the Assembly segment concerned, a “vistarak”, the district and ward presidents, besides present and former municipal councillors, among others.

“Self-nomination will be allowed and the core committee members can also recommend themselves,” he added.

The recommended names will be screened by the election committee of the party and the candidates were expected to be finalised by January 14, Tiwari said.

At a convention of over 13,000 booth-level workers of the BJP last Sunday, its president Amit Shah said the saffron party will form the government in the national capital under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Tiwari asserted that the BJP will win “at least 45 seats” in the Delhi polls.

The saffron party has been out of power in the national capital for over 21 years. In the February 8 polls, it is eyeing to upstage an upbeat Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which stormed to power in 2015, winning 67 of the 70 seats.

The BJP managed to win just three seats in the 2015 Delhi polls. However, it registered massive victories in the 2017 municipal corporation election and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, winning all the seven parliamentary seats in the national capital.

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 It seems that the crop residue burning in the nearby states of Punjab and Haryana are contributing to polluting the air. At around 8:30 am, the overall AQI in Delhi docked up at 309.

An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 ‘severe’.

Meanwhile, the Delhi government has shared an image from NASA showing large-scale stubble burning in adjoining states. Sharing the images, the Delhi government said: “The latest image from NASA shows large-scale crop residue burning in states surrounding Delhi.”

The image showed stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana, along with other areas.The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party government has blamed these stubble burning activity.

From the past one week, the air quality of the national capital has seen constantly decreasing. The smog level will rise, particularly after the Diwali festival. The situation may begin to worsen during the November start as that will be peak time for burning .

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