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BJP releases first list of 53 candidates for Delhi polls

Staff Reporter

13 names withheld for seats to which there were more than one strong claimant

Chief Ministerial candidate Vijay Kumar Malhotra to contest from Greater Kailash
Saket MLA Vijay Jolly to take on Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in New Delhi

NEW DELHI: Though it might be a mere coincidence, in response to the 53 names of candidates that were unofficially announced by the Congress for the Delhi Assembly elections last weekend, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday released its first list of 53 candidates for the polls.

The party, which has given four seats to Shiromani Akali Dal, withheld 13 names for seats to which there were more than one strong claimant following protests by some leaders like Vijay Goel and O.P. Kohli.

Coming out of the Central Election Committee meeting held at the party’s national headquarters on Ashok Road where the names were decided, BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley said while the Chief Ministerial candidate Vijay Kumar Malhotra would contest the election from Greater Kailash, Saket MLA Vijay Jolly has been entrusted the task of taking on Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in the New Delhi constituency.

Besides, he said, Delhi BJP president Harsh Vardhan would contest from Krishna Nagar, Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Jagdish Mukhi would again seek re-election from Janakpuri, former Delhi Minister Harsharan Singh Balli would fight from Hari Nagar and former Member of Parliament and BJP national vice-president Anita Arya would contest from Patel Nagar.

Mr. Jaitley said the party had given ticket to all the 19 sitting MLAs and their names figure in the list. As for the 13 names that have been withheld, he said the party was assessing the winning prospects of the candidates and also trying to give adequate representation to women and people hailing from different regions of the country.

“Keeping this in mind, we are consulting leaders,” he added.

He said that apart from Ms. Arya, one more woman candidate — Kalpana Jain from Gandhi Nagar — had been fielded thus far.

The seats for which the party has still not announced its candidates include Chandni Chowk, Sadar Bazar and Matia Mahal from the Chandni Chowk parliamentary constituency. Former Chandni Chowk MP Mr. Goel had raised objections to the manner in which the tickets were being distributed. Earlier in the day, he had also walked out of the Election Committee meeting being held at the Delhi BJP headquarters on Pandit Pant Marg.

From that meeting senior leader O.P. Kohli had also staged a walkout to register his protest over the way candidates were being selected in East Delhi. In particular Prof. Kohli was opposed to the fielding of a candidate from the hilly regions, Murari Singh Panwar, in Laxmi Nagar which has a negligible population of people from the region and of a non-Uttaranchali from Patparganj. Both these constituencies have been kept “pending”.

The other seats which have been kept on hold by the party are Vikaspuri, Matiala, Burari, Nangloi Jat, Najafgarh, Trilokpuri, Seelampur and Mustafabad.

Dr. Vardhan said the CEC would again meet in the next two days and the candidates for the remaining seats would most probably be announced on Monday.

As for the protests by some angry supporters of ticket seekers at the Delhi BJP office earlier in the day, he said such pressure tactics should be avoided as they go against the interests of the aspirants. “We follow a democratic process of selection and there are several candidates for each seat. Since only one candidate gets the nod, there is bound to be disappointment, but it should be controlled.”

Dr. Vardhan also informed that while the party had tried to field former Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma’s son Parvesh from Mundka, he had not evinced interest in fighting the polls.

Mr. Jolly, who was also present at the announcement, said just the way Raj Narain had defeated Indira Gandhi in the 1970s, and Ajay Maken had defeated Jagmohan in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, he too wants to prove that Ms. Dikshit is “not invincible”.

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