BJP on January 4 unveiled its first list of 29 candidates for the 70-member Delhi Assembly elections. The list includes former MP Parvesh Verma, who will contest from New Delhi against former Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal.
The party has also nominated another former MP, Ramesh Bidhuri, from Kalkaji, where AAP’s Chief Ministerial candidate Atishi is running.
National office-bearers Dushyant Kumar Gautam and Ashish Sood have been fielded from Karol Bagh and Janakpuri, respectively. Arvinder Singh Lovely will contest from Gandhi Nagar, while former AAP leader Kailash Gahlot is the candidate for Bijwasan.
Additionally, former Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay will stand for election from Malviya Nagar.
Since 2015, AAP has held a majority in the Delhi government, winning two consecutive Delhi Assembly elections with a resounding victory. However, it has struggled in the Lok Sabha elections, failing to secure a single seat since 2014. The upcoming elections are expected to see a fierce contest between AAP and the opposing BJP.
Here is the full list of the final 29 candidates in the first list:
|
Assembly No. and seat |
Candidate |
|
|
4 |
Adarsh Nagar |
Raj Kumar Bhatia |
|
5 |
Badli |
Deepak Chaudhary |
|
6 |
Rithala |
Kulwant Rana |
|
11 |
Nangloi Jat |
Manoj Shokeen |
|
12 |
Mangolpuri (SC) |
Rajkumar Chauhan |
|
13 |
Rohini |
Vijender Gupta |
|
14 |
Shalimar Bagh |
Rekha Gupta |
|
18 |
Model Town |
Ashok Goel |
|
23 |
Karol Bagh (SC) |
Dushyant Kumar Gautam |
|
24 |
Patel Nagar (SC) |
Raaj Kumar Anand |
|
27 |
Rajouri Garden |
Sardar Manjinder Singh Sisra |
|
30 |
Janakpuri |
Ashish Sood |
|
36 |
Bijwasan |
Kailash Gahlot |
|
40 |
New Delhi |
Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma |
|
41 |
Jangpura |
Sardar Tarvinder Singh Marwah |
|
43 |
Malviya Nagar |
Satish Upadhayay |
|
44 |
RK Puram |
Anil Sharma |
|
45 |
Mehrauli |
Gajainder Yadav |
|
46 |
Chhatarpur |
Kartar Singh Tanwar |
|
48 |
Ambedkar Nagar (SC) |
Khushiram Chunar |
|
51 |
Kalkaji |
Ramesh Bidhuri |
|
53 |
Badarpur |
Narayan Dutt Sharma |
|
57 |
Patparganj |
Ravinder Singh Negi |
|
59 |
Vishwas Nagar |
Om Prakash Sharma |
|
60 |
Krishna Nagar |
Dr. Anil Goyal |
|
61 |
Gandhi Nagar |
Sardar Arvinder Singh Lovely |
|
63 |
Seemapuri (SC) |
Sushri Kumari Rinku |
|
64 |
Rohtas Nagar |
Jitendra Mahajan |
|
66 |
Ghonda |
Ajay Mahawar |
BJP’s first list of 29 candidates, two of them are women candidates. The disclosure of BJP’s nominees comes at last, as the AAP has already announced names of all candidates while Congress has also released many names.
The elections in the national capital are slated in February this year and political experts believe that poll dates will also be announced soon.
As the election campaign heats up in Delhi, tensions between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and BJP are rising over allegations regarding voter list manipulation.
AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal has written a letter to the district electoral officer of New Delhi, raising concerns about a sudden and unusual surge in voter registration and deletion requests within the New Delhi assembly constituency. The AAP has claimed that these sudden changes are suspicious and could potentially influence the outcome of the upcoming elections.
In response, BJP has rejected these allegations, asserting that the claims made by Kejriwal are baseless and politically motivated. The BJP maintains that the voter list updates are part of regular administrative processes, and there is no foul play involved.