BJP’s First List For Delhi Polls In, Parvesh Verma To Fight Arvind Kejriwal
The BJP has released the first list of its candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections in Delhi.
The party has released names of candidates who would be contesting on 29 seats out of the total 70 seats in the national capital. The Aam Aadmi Party has released the names of all the candidates that will be contesting in the Assembly elections. The elections in the National Capital are scheduled for February. Former BJP MP Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma will be contesting against former Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal from the New Delhi seat.
“I thank my party’s top leadership… I hope that the trust that the party has shown in me, I’ll live up to it… When Delhi was facing COVID-19, when they needed Oxygen, Arvind Kejriwal Ji was distributing a ‘free bottle on every bottle’… There are many works in Delhi – like cleaning Yamuna, and curbing pollution… when the BJP forms the govt, we will do all these works,” Mr Verma said.
Former Delhi Transport Minister, Kailash Gehlot, once a close aide of Arvind Kejriwal, left AAP and joined the BJP months before the elections, and will be contesting from the Bijwasan seat.
Ramesh Bidhuri, who was the BJP MP from South Delhi till 2024, will be contesting from the Kalkaji constituency against Chief Minister Atishi. Mr Bidhuri was not given a ticket by the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections 2024. Congress has fielded Alka Lamba from the Kalkaji constituency.
Delhi Chief Minister Atishi responded to the BJP’s move and said. “Ramesh Bidhuri was an MP for 10 years, but his party did not trust his work and did not give him a Lok Sabha ticket, then how will the people of Kalkaji trust his work.” “I thank the BJP leadership for showing trust in me to reclaim the Kalkaji assembly seat. Delhi is suffering because of Arvind Kejriwal. The people of Kalkaji have also faced ‘AAPda’ under Chief Minister Atishi,” Mr Bidhuri said.
Arvinder Singh Lovely, who was a minister in Sheila Dikshit’s cabinet from 2003 to 2013, left the Congress last year and joined the BJP, he will now be contesting from the Gandhinagar seat in east Delhi. The Aam Aadmi Party has been in power since 2015, securing a thumping majority twice in the Assembly elections. But, in the Lok Sabha elections, AAP has failed to win a single seat since 2014 and BJP won all seven.
The upcoming elections are being viewed as a fiercely contested battle between the BJP and AAP. The Congress, which was in power in Delhi for 15 straight years, has not been able to win any seat in the last two editions of the Delhi polls. Allies in the Opposition bloc INDIA, the Congress and AAP are fighting against each other in the Delhi polls. The parties even fought separately in the Haryana elections last year.