Senior leaders from the Congress, the BJP and the AAP filed their nominations on Friday with the Delhi Election Office receiving nomination papers from 49 candidates across the city. Sitting Congress MPs Ajay Maken, J.P. Agarwal and Mahabal Mishra, and senior BJP leaders such as Harsh Vardhan, Meenakshi Lekhi and Pravesh Verma were among a host of candidates who filed their papers. Among the AAP candidates were former Delhi Women and Child Development Minister Rakhi Birla, and senior leaders Rajmohan Gandhi and Ashutosh.
Sitting MP from East Delhi Sandeep Dikshit also filed his nomination for the seat. Accompanied by hundreds of Congress workers, he submitted his papers to the Returning Officer at the Deputy Commissioner’s office in East Delhi. “Though we lost the Delhi Assembly elections, there is no loss of enthusiasm among party workers. We are confident of winning this time around as the so-called AAP wave is over,” he said, adding that the “wave” in favour of BJP PM nominee Narendra Modi was just a “creation” of media. Mr. Dikshit will face BJP’s Maheish Girri and AAP’s Mr. Gandhi.
While BJP’s North-West Delhi candidate Udit Raj also filed his nominations, Dr. Vardhan officially entered the fray from Chandni Chowk to contest against AAP’s Ashutosh and sitting MP Kapil Sibal of the Congress. Mr. Ashutosh filed his nomination accompanied by large number of AAP supporters.
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BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi and Mr. Maken also filed their nomination papers before the Returning officer at Jamnagar House for the prestigious New Delhi constituency.
Ms. Lekhi came to the Returning Officer’s office, herself driving a white colour open jeep to give a message of women empowerment.
She was accompanied by senior BJP leader V. K. Malhotra, her husband Aman Lekhi and son Pranay Lekhi, who is handling her social media campaign.
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