New Delhi:The Election Commission of India has called a meeting on Wednesday to prepare for the upcoming Delhi assembly elections. The date of the much awaited election will be announced shortly after this meeting.
Aam Aadmi Party has already announced the names of candidates for all 70 seats. The Congress, which failed to open its account in the last two assembly elections, has announced the first list of 21 candidates, while the BJP, which is trying to make a comeback after 25 years, has not yet announced any candidate. Its candidates.
Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal has confirmed that he will contest from New Delhi seat in the upcoming elections and Chief Minister Atishi will contest from Kalkaji constituency. AAP’s list also includes 10 turncoats, seven from BJP and three from Congress. The party also removed 17 sitting MLAs, replaced three other MLAs with family members, and changed candidates in two constituencies.
Attacking BJP, Kejriwal said on X, “BJP is missing. They have no CM face, no team, no plan, and no vision for Delhi. They have one slogan, one policy and one goal – ‘Remove Kejriwal’. Ask what they did in five years, and they reply, ‘Cursed Kejriwal a lot.’
Leaving no margin for your India. Bloc partner AAP, the Congress is expected to lose outright and has fielded Sandeep Dixit, son of late three-time Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, against Mr Kejriwal. There are indications that the BJP may field late Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma’s son Parvesh Verma in the race from the New Delhi seat.
If Verma is finalized to take on the AAP supremo, it could lead to a triangular fight between the three heavyweights, with Dixit trying to recapture the legacy seat, which his mother lost at the altar of Kejriwal.
Sources said the list of BJP candidates, expected around the last week of this month, could have a significant number of new faces.
Ahead of February’s 70-member Delhi assembly elections, the BJP has already launched a massive outreach campaign to gain a foothold in the city’s slums, considered a stronghold of the ruling AAP.
The party has received more than 2,000 applications from workers and leaders of all 70 constituencies for tickets to contest the elections, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said.
“Delhi has seen significant enthusiasm for the BJP among various sections of society as the city gears up for assembly elections,” he said in a statement.
BJP leaders said that the process of selection of candidates is at an advanced stage and three candidates in each constituency have already been shortlisted. According to party sources, the final list of candidates will be published by the end of December after the series of selection meetings after the end of the Parliament session on 20th November.
The BJP is likely to focus on new faces, including women and young leaders with strong grassroots connections. Leaders who have lost two or more elections are unlikely to enter the fray, while close calls in previous elections are being carefully analysed. New entrants to the BJP, including former Congress leaders Arvinder Singh Lovely and Raj Kumar Chauhan, may also figure in the final list.
The BJP, which has been out of power in Delhi since 1998, is making every effort to topple the ruling AAP, which has dominated assembly elections since 2015. It has returned home after winning 67 and 62 seats respectively in the last two assembly elections. 2015 and 2020.