Setting the stage for some high-profile contests within the upcoming Delhi Meeting elections, the BJP on Saturday launched its first record of 29 candidates, fielding not less than six turncoats from the incumbent Aam Aadmi Celebration (AAP) and the Congress who not too long ago joined the occasion.
The candidates named to date underline the BJP’s deal with their “native reputation and winnability over all the pieces else”, stated occasion insiders.
The BJP has pitted its former West Delhi MP Parvesh Verma in opposition to AAP supremo and former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal from the New Delhi constituency moreover fielding ex-South Delhi MP Ramesh Bidhuri in opposition to Chief Minister Atishi from Kalkaji, thereby establishing a high-voltage, three-cornered battle in these seats. The BJP’s first record options former Delhi Congress president and East Delhi strongman Arvinder Singh Pretty from Gandhi Nagar and ex-Congress minister Rajkumar Chauhan from Mangolpuri. Each of them had switched to the BJP within the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. They have been ministers within the earlier Congress authorities led by the late Sheila Dikshit.
Former AAP minister Kailash Gahlot, who was a outstanding member of the erstwhile Kejriwal Cupboard and joined the BJP final November, has been fielded from Bijwasan.
Ex-AAP Chhatarpur MLA Kartar Singh Tanwar has been given a ticket from the identical constituency, and former Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay, who has additionally served as New Delhi Municipal Council vice-chairperson, has been fielded from Malviya Nagar. The record additionally consists of Manjinder Singh Sirsa, fielded from Rajouri Backyard, which he received on a Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) ticket in 2013 and in a 2017 bypoll earlier than he switched to the BJP in 2021.
Referring to the turncoats making it to the BJP’s record, a celebration supply stated, “This augurs nicely for one more former Congress chief who joined the occasion this yr — Neeraj Basoya — who is likely to be fielded from Kasturba Nagar within the subsequent record. Eyebrows, nevertheless, are additionally being raised throughout the occasion with discussions round whether or not there are not any leaders throughout the BJP who may have been fielded from throughout the organisation as a substitute of greater than half a dozen turncoats.”
The supply added, “Whereas two former BJP MPs — Verma and Bidhuri — have been accommodated, what stays to be seen is whether or not ex-New Delhi occasion MP Meenakshi Lekhi and former Chandni Chowk MP Dr Harsh Vardhan may even be fielded or not.”.
The BJP dropped its Gandhi Nagar MLA Anil Bajpai, a former AAP chief, giving the ticket to Pretty as a substitute. Former AAP minister Raaj Kumar Anand and ex-BJP Rajya Sabha MP Dushyant Gautam have been fielded from the Patel Nagar and Karol Bagh seats respectively.
“The nomination of leaders akin to Anand, former Congress chief Tarvinder Singh Marwah, fielded from Jangpura in opposition to AAP chief Manish Sisodia, and our councillor Ravindra Singh Negi nominated from Patparganj on Sisodia’s earlier seat, underline these standards,” a senior BJP chief stated, including that “successful these polls after remaining out of energy in Delhi for 27 years now’s a precedence for us”.
“What must be understood is that each one these picks, and the remaining who will comply with – our second record is probably going both after the PM’s rally (on Sunday) or by Monday – are primarily based on surveys by the BJP’s nationwide and state management in addition to that of the RSS. Furthermore, Delhi in-charge Baijayant Panda has mentioned the candidature of every decide with the BJP MP involved beneath whose Lok Sabha seat every Meeting constituency somebody has been fielded from falls,” one other supply stated. Marwah had been a Congress MLA throughout all three of the Sheila Dikshit-led Congress regime from 1998 to 2013.
From amongst eight sitting BJP MLAs, six have made it to the primary record, together with Chief of the Opposition (LoP) within the outgoing Meeting Vijender Gupta, Vishwas Nagar MLA O P Sharma, Ghonda MLA Ajay Mahawar, and Jitendra Mahajan who represents Rohtas Nagar.
With candidates for 41 of the 70 Meeting seats but to be declared, the BJP has declared its nominees on six of the ten Meeting segments throughout the South Delhi Lok Sabha seat, 5 every within the East Delhi, New Delhi and North West Delhi parliamentary constituencies, three every in Chandni Chowk and North East Delhi, along with two seats within the West Delhi Lok Sabha seat.
Whereas the AAP has declared all 70 of its candidates, the Congress has introduced 48 nominees to date. In 2020, the AAP had swept the Delhi polls for the second consecutive time, bagging 62 seats, with the BJP getting eight and the Congress drawing a clean.
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