The Bharatiya Janata Party has avoided a direct face-off between its Chief Ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi and Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal and chose instead to field Ms. Bedi from the “safe seat” of Krishna Nagar. The BJP’s student leader Nupur Sharma will take on Mr. Kejriwal in the New Delhi Assembly constituency prompting the AAP to refer to the decision as a “lamb fielded for slaughter”.
Former Delhi Finance Minister and senior party leader Jagdish Mukhi who was a CM probable has been fielded once again from his home constituency of Janakpuri. All sitting MLAs from the BJP such as Sat Prakash Rana (Bijwasan), Mohan Singh Bisht (Karawal Nagar), Anil Jha (Kirari), Manoj Shokeen (Nangloi Jat), Pradyuman Rajput (Dwarka) have been given tickets to contest.
The party has fielded six women candidates among the 62 names that it announced late on Monday night. Apart from Ms. Bedi and Ms. Sharma, former Congress Minister Krishna Tirath who joined the party the same day will contest from Patel Nagar, former Delhi mayor Rajni Abbi has been fielded once again from Timarpur and Rekha Gupta from Shalimar Bagh.
Those who defected from the AAP have also been given tickets. Among them are former speaker of Delhi Vidhan Sabha M.S. Dhir (Jangpura) and Ashok Kumar from Ambedkar Nagar. Vinod Kumar Binny, formerly with the AAP and who joined the BJP on Sunday, will contest against former Delhi PWD Minister Manish Sisodia in East Delhi’s Patparganj.
The party has announced only one Muslim candidate, Anjuman Dahalwi, who will contest from Matia Mahal. Shyam Moral will contest from Ballimaran and Brahm Singh Vidhuri from Okhla. The candidates’ list also includes municipal councillors – Yogender Chandolia from the reserved seat of Karol Bagh and Rajesh Gehlot from Matiala.
Eight more candidates are yet to be announced by the BJP including from seats – Rajouri Garden, Hari Nagar, Shahdara and Kalkaji – that were previously contested by the party’s ally, the Akali Dal. The party also did not reveal the candidates from Malviya Nagar, from where Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay, was expected to be announced yet sources said he may sit out this election.
Mehrauli from where West Delhi MP Pravesh Verma contested in 2013 remains without a candidate and so does Vikaspuri. The BJP has also not announced a candidate from Greater Kailash where the Congress will field President Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter Sharmishta and where the AAP’s Saurabh Bharadwaj will contest from.
Party gives tickets to all sitting MLAs;
to field six women and one Muslim candidate
