NEW DELHI: BJP on Thursday released its final list of candidates comprising nine names, and left two seats to allies – JD-U (Burari) and LJP-Ram Vilas (Deoli) – thereby completing the NDA lineup for all 70 Delhi seats that go to polls on Feb 5.
BJP’s Shikha Rai will contest against AAP’s Saurabh Bhardwaj and Garvit Singhvi of Congress from GK.
JD(U)’s Shailendra Kumar takes on AAP’s Sanjeev Jha and Congress’s Mangesh Tyagi.
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LJP-Ram Vilas is yet to name its candidate.
BJP gives allies seats in Delhi with an eye on Bihar election
Sources in BJP said its state unit wasn’t keen on giving the seats to its allies, but had to do so keeping this year’s Bihar assembly polls in mind. Both JD(U) and LJP (Ram Vilas), with a stronghold in Bihar, are key partners in BJP-led NDA.
JD(U)’s Kumar contested the same seat in 2020 but lost by over 80,000 votes.
The other eight BJP candidates includes Poonam Sharma from Wazirpur, Bhuvan Tanwar (Delhi Cantt), Ravindra Kumar (Indraj) from Bawana, Chandan Kumar Chaudhary (Sangam Vihar), Ravikant Ujjain (Trilokpuri), Sanjay Goyal (Shahdara), Anil Vashishth (Babarpur) and Praveen Nimesh from Gokalpuri.
Chandan Kumar Chaudhary, the current BJP councillor representing Sangam Vihar A ward, will face off against Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Dinesh Mohaniya, who previously held the position of Delhi Jal Board (DJB) vice chairman. Congress has given a ticket to Harsh Chaudhary from the seat.
The party has nominated Poonam Sharma, currently serving as a councillor from the Ashok Vihar ward, to contest from the Wazirpur assembly constituency against Congress’s Ragini Nayak and AAP’s Rajesh Gupta. Candidates have until January 17 to file their nominations, which will be scrutinised on January 18. The deadline for withdrawal of candidature is January 20.
BJP’s overall candidate list features popular names, including ex-MP Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma, whose father served as Delhi’s former Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma. He is contesting against former CM Arvind Kejriwal. Congress has given a ticket to former CM Sheila Dikshit’s son, Sandeep Dikshit, from the seat. BJP functionary Harish Khurana, son of former Delhi chief minister Madan Lal Khurana, is contesting from Moti Nagar.
The party also nominated previous South Delhi MP Ramesh Bidhuri to contest from Kalkaji against CM Atishi and Congress women’s wing chief Alka Lamba. The earlier list also featured candidates like Kapil Mishra, who will contest from the Karawal Nagar constituency, and Neelam Pahalwan, who has been given the ticket for Najafgarh. The incumbent Najafgarh MLA and former Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot, who recently left the AAP to join BJP, has been fielded from Bijwasan.
BJP is pulling out all the stops to end the Aam Aadmi Party’s 10-year-long reign in in the elections scheduled for February 5. The counting of votes is due on February 8. Overall, BJP has repeated seven of its eight incumbent MLAs, with Anil Bajpai from Gandhi Nagar being the only candidate who has not been repeated. BJP has given a ticket to former Delhi Congress chief, who switched to BJP, Arvinder Singh Lovely from the seat.