Delhi assembly elections 2025: BJP's poll prep gathers pace, first list of candidates expected by December 25

The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) preparations for the upcoming Delhi assembly elections seem to have gathered pace. The BJP on Wednesday announced a 21-member State Election Committee tasked with screening of potential candidates.  

The party is likely to release the first list of its candidates for Delhi elections on or by December 25, The Indian Express reported citing senior party leaders.

“The first list of at least 25 candidates could be announced on, or by, December 25. BJP national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh has issued directions to ensure that this is done without any more delay,” a senior party leader said.

The process for finalising the candidates does not only entail instituting a State Election Committee. A party insider explained that after this, a Core Committee will be constituted to vet the potential candidates. Later, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-chaired Central Election Committee will meet to take the final call. 

The SEC was announced after Union Home Minister Amit Shah presided over a meeting regarding the party's overall preparations for the polls along with the BJP Delhi president Virendra Sachdeva and BJP in charge for Delhi Baijayant Panda. 

Besides Sachdeva's predecessor Adesh Gupta, the committee has leaders such as Manoj Tiwari, Satish Upadhyay and Dr Harsh Vardhan. Dr Harsh Vardhan is the only former MP on the panel, a source privy to the matter said. 

While the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress have announced their candidate lists, the BJP hasn't named even a single candidate so far. The AAP has announced candidates on all the 70 assembly seats whereas the Congress has declared its candidates for 21 seats so far. 

The BJP has not yet declared its candidates for the elections because a rejig is likely in the state unit. Another reason for the delay in releasing the candidate list is said to be the ongoing Parliament session, one of the sources said.

Not just this, the BJP is also faced with the problem of plenty in several assembly seats due to the influx of new members from other parties and the claims staked by existing BJP members.

These assembly seats include Gandhi Nagar in East Delhi (Anil Bajpai vs Arvinder Singh Lovely), Vishwas Nagar in East Delhi (OP Sharma vs Naseeb Singh), Najafgarh in South West Delhi (Kailash Gehlot vs Neelam Pahlwan vs Jai Sharma), Laxmi Nagar in East Delhi (Abhay Verma vs Nitin Tyagi), and Kasturba Nagar in South Delhi (Meenakshi Lekhi vs Neeraj Basoya).