The fight for the bypoll to the Rajouri Garden Assembly seat has heated up with candidates of all the major political parties filling their nomination papers on Tuesday, the last day to do so.
The bypoll, to be held on April 9, will be a test of popularity for all the political parties before the upcoming civic polls on April 22.
Three-way fight
The Rajouri Garden assembly seat fell vacant after the sitting Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Jarnail Singh resigned to contest the Punjab Assembly elections against the former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in Lambi.
The AAP is now fielding Harjeet Singh for the seat, who filed his nomination for the bypolls on Tuesday.
Mr. Harjeet, a volunteer at the Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, is a corporate executive.
He joined the Anna Hazare movement in 2012 and later became a member of the Aam Aadmi Party.
He has been an active member of the party in west Delhi and was also the observer of Rajouri Garden assembly seat. Until recently, he was the chairman of Rajdhani College.
SAD-BJP candidate
Former MLA and Akali Dal leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa filed his nomination on Tuesday as the Akali Dal-BJP joint candidate. He filed his nomination in the presence of Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari and west Delhi MP Pravesh Verma.
The seat was earlier won by Mr. Sirsa in 2013.
Mr. Jarnail had got 54,916 votes, defeating Mr. Sirsa by 10,036 votes in the 2015 Assembly elections.
Congress candidate Meenakshi Chandela also filed nomination for the bypoll on Tuesday. Ms. Chandela is the councillor for the Khyala ward in the South Delhi Municipal Corporation.
The 32-year-old had contested the Rajouri Garden Assembly seat in 2015, but had lost to Mr. Jarnail.
The returning officer of the constituency received 21 nominations by 14 candidates. The scrutiny of the nomination papers will be taken up on Wednesday. The last date to withdraw candidature is March 24.
