Candidates of the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress on Wednesday filed their nominations for the by-election to the Bawana Assembly constituency to be held on August 23. Meanwhile, the BJP said its contender would officially enter the ring on Saturday, the last day for nominations.
The seat fell vacant in March after the AAP MLA, Ved Prakash, moved to the BJP just before the municipal elections that were held in April. While Mr. Prakash will be the BJP’s candidate this time, the AAP nominated Ramchandra, who has been associated with the India Against Corruption movement. He had contested as the Bahujan Samaj Party’s candidate in 2008.
On Wednesday, the AAP candidate was accompanied to the nomination filing centre by the party’s Delhi convenor Gopal Rai, senior leader Sanjay Singh and Delhi Cabinet Minister Imran Hussain, along with several MLAs and volunteers, who danced to drum beats and shouted slogans in his support. “We are very confident of a win again,” said Mr. Rai.
‘Landslide victory’
He said that the AAP government had sanctioned around ₹200 crore to initiate developmental activities in Bawana. Mr. Ramchandra also showed confidence, saying it would be a “landslide victory”.
“We have been meeting people and have received tremendous support. I am confident and the people of Bawana will come out in huge numbers and vote for us,” he said.
The campaign has also been strengthened by former BJP MLA Gugan Singh Ranga, who recently joined the AAP. He has been assigned the task of chalking out the party’s election strategy.
For the Congress, three-time Bawana MLA Surender Kumar filed his nomination. He was accompanied by Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken, who said that the party was confident as the AAP and the BJP had become “bankrupt” as they had both “borrowed candidates from each other”.
He said Mr. Kumar had served the people of Bawana for 15 years starting 1998, something the voters would remember when casting their ballots. Meanwhile, BJP State president Manoj Tiwari on Tuesday announced that the party would kick off its campaign for the Bawana Assembly constituency by-poll from Thursday.
