BJP Delhi Lok Sabha Candidate List: The Bharatiya Janata Party has released names for all seven seats for Delhi Lok Sabha elections and to everyone’s surprise, six sitting MPs have lost their tickets. The MPs failed to get renominated from their respective seats. The only MP who managed to save his seat is Manoj Tiwari, who probably got saved due to his northern roots as denying a ticket to him could have had a cascading effect in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Also, by fielding grassroots leaders, the BJP has tried to infuse new confidence among its workers ahead of an expected tough contest due to the alliance of the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress and weed out anti-incumbency.
In its second list of 72 candidates, the BJP announced to field former Mayor of the erstwhile East Delhi Municipal Corporation Harsh Malhotra the East Delhi seat and former Mayor of North Delhi Yogendra Chandolia from the North West Delhi Lok Sabha seat. Thus, the BJP replaced sitting East Delhi MP Gautam Gambhir who opted out of politics and North West Delhi MP Hans Raj Hans.
In the first list, the BJP had announced five of the seven candidates for the Delhi polls. The party has fielded Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of Sushma Swaraj from the New Delhi, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri from South Delhi, Kamaljeet Sehrawat from the West Delhi, Praveen Khandelwal from the Chandni Chowk and retained Manoj Tiwari from the North East Delhi. Chandani Chowk was represented by Dr. Harsh Vardhan, New Delhi by Meenakshi Lekhi, South Delhi by Ramesh Bidhuri and West Delhi by Parvesh Sahib Singh Varma.
Both Malhotra and Kapoor have extensive experience working at the grassroots level for the party, having been involved for many years. They gained political knowledge through their roles in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. Chandolia, who is set to contest from the reserved North West Delhi seat, holds the distinction of being the first Scheduled Caste leader appointed as BJP General Secretary. His experience includes serving in different roles within the MCD, including Chairman of the civic body’s executive body, the Standing Committee. On the other hand, Malhotra is regarded as an organizational man.