NEW DELHI: With less than a week left before the announcement of Delhi assembly polls, the BJP has released its first list of candidates, awarding tickets to four sitting legislators, two former MPs, and eight former MLAs.
Former West Delhi MP Parvesh Verma will contest against AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal in the New Delhi assembly constituency, while ex-South Delhi MP Ramesh Bidhuri will face chief minister Atishi in Kalkaji.
Four former Delhi ministers – Kailash Gahlot and Raaj Kumar Anand, who served in the outgoing AAP government, along with Arvinder Singh Lovely and Rajkumar Chauhan, who held key portfolios during Sheila Dikshit’s government from 2003 to 2013 – have also been given tickets.
Lovely has replaced sitting MLA Anil Kumar Bajpai in Gandhi Nagar. Bajpai was elected on AAP ticket in 2015 but later switched sides and won the 2020 poll as a BJP candidate.
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Gahlot’s seat has been shifted from Najafgarh to Bijwasan, while Anand will contest from the reserved constituency of Patel Nagar. Lovely will contest from his former stronghold of Gandhi Nagar, while Chauhan will run from the reserved Mangolpuri constituency.
Another former Congress MLA, Tarwinder Singh Marwah, will contest from Jangpura – a seat he held during the Congress regime – against former Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia.
Sitting BJP MLAs, including the Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi assembly Vijender Gupta, veteran Om Prakash Sharma, Ajay Mahawar, and Jitender Mahajan, will re-contest from Rohini, Vishwas Nagar, Ghonda, and Rohtas Nagar, respectively.
Former BJP MLAs Kulwant Rana, Manoj Shokeen, Anil Sharma, and Manjinder Singh Sirsa will contest from Rithala, Nangloi Jat, RK Puram, and Rajouri Garden, respectively.
Narayan Dutt Sharma, a former AAP MLA from Badarpur who joined BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, has been fielded from Badarpur.
Several candidates, such as Ashok Goel (Model Town), Raj Kumar Bhatia (Adarsh Nagar), and Rekha Gupta (Shalimar Bagh), have previously contested assembly polls but were unsuccessful.
The elections are scheduled for February this year. AAP has already announced candidates for all 70 seats, while Congress has named 48 candidates so far.
Rekha Gupta is a municipal councillor from Pitampura. Former South MCD mayor Khushiram Chunar has been named from the reserved seat of Ambedkar Nagar. Kartar Singh Tanwar, AAP MLA from Chhatarpur who joined BJP a few months ago, has been fielded from the same constituency. Former Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay will contest from Malviya Nagar.
Former municipal councillor from Congress, Kumari Rinku, is BJP candidate from the reserved constituency of Seemapuri.
Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva said the 29 candidates announced by the party for Delhi Assembly elections are strong and will act as catalyst of change in the city.
The party has yet to announce its candidates from Karawal Nagar and Laxmi Nagar seats, which were won by its sitting MLAs Mohan Singh Bisht and Abhay Verma, respectively, in the 2020 polls.