'No Delhi-Specific Announcements' In Union Budget: ECI To Issue Directive To Finance Secy Amid Assembly Polls

Delhi Election 2025: The Finance Secretary will be instructed not to include Delhi-specific announcements in the 2025 Union Budget to ensure a level playing field, CEC Rajiv Kumar said.

Representational Image | The Election Commission of India (ECI) will direct the Finance Secretary to ensure that there are no Delhi-related announcements in the Union Budget scheduled for February 1.

Source : ABPLIVE AI

The Election Commission of India (ECI) will direct the Finance Secretary on Tuesday to ensure no announcements related to Delhi are made in the Union Budget 2025, which is set to be presented on 1 February. The decision comes ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections, scheduled for a single phase on 5 February, with vote counting on 8 February.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar told the media, "The Union Budget will come on February 1 and Delhi will vote on February 5. Today itself, we will issue a standing instruction to the Cabinet Secretary that there should be no Delhi-specific announcement in the budget that can disturb the level playing field. For pan India, there is no problem. This is the practise always."

#DelhiElections2025 | Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar says, "The Union Budget will come on February 1 and Delhi will vote on February 5. Today itself, we will issue a standing instruction to the Cabinet Secretary that there should be no announcement related to Delhi in… pic.twitter.com/FlfxNcnCDa

— ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2025

Delhi Assembly Election On February 5. Counting on February 8, Announces ECI

The ECI on Tuesday announced that voting for the 70-member Delhi Legislative Assembly will take place on 5 February, with results to be declared on 8 February.

According to the ECI, the Gazette Notification for the election will be issued on 10 January. The last date for filing nominations is 17 January, with scrutiny of nominations scheduled for 18 January. Candidates can withdraw their nominations until 20 January. The election process is set to conclude by 10 February, ahead of the expiry of the current Assembly’s term on 23 February.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, along with Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, announced the details during a press conference held at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.

“It is a single-phase election… We have deliberately kept polling on a Wednesday so more people come out to vote… like we did in Maharashtra,” CEC Rajiv Kumar said.

Delhi has 70 constituencies, comprising 58 general and 12 reserved for Scheduled Castes, spread across 11 districts. According to Kumar, Delhi has a total of 1.55 crore voters, including 83.49 lakh male voters, 71.74 lakh female voters, and 25.89 lakh young voters. The city will have 13,033 polling stations, with 70 of them managed exclusively by women and persons with disabilities (PwD).

Initiatives such as the Saksham app for PwD voters, home voting facilities for senior citizens, and the CVIGIL app for lodging complaints will be available to enhance voter accessibility and address concerns.

The ECI also released a revised voter list on Monday. The total voter base in Delhi now stands at 1,55,24,858, reflecting an increase of 1,67,329 electors since October 2024. The ECI cautioned against the use of fabricated or false documents for obtaining voter IDs.

The ECI also confirmed that bypolls for two assembly constituencies—Milkipur in Uttar Pradesh and Erode in Tamil Nadu—will be conducted on the same schedule as Delhi.

The Union Budget, presented annually on 1 February, is a document outlining the government’s fiscal allocations. With the Delhi polls just days after the budget announcement, the ECI’s directive aims to ensure fairness so that no schemes are announced to influence the voters' decision in the polls.