The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday released the second list of 29 candidates for the Delhi Assembly elections. The saffron party fielded Kapil Mishra and Harish Khurana for the crucial elections in the national capital. Khurana, son of former Delhi chief minister Madan Lal Khurana, will contest from the Moti Nagar constituency. With the second list, the party has so far named candidates for 58 seats for the elections to the 70-member Delhi Assembly. The elections are scheduled to be held on February 5 and the votes will be counted on February 8.
Delhi BJP's Mandir Prakoshth (temple cell) chief Karnail Singh is the party's candidate against sitting AAP MLA and former minister Satyendar Jain at Shakoor Basti seat. Former Kasturba Nagar MLA Neeraj Basoya, who recently defected to the BJP from Congress, was fielded from the same seat. Former Delhi BJP general secretary (organisation) Pawan Sharma will contest Uttam Nagar seat that he won in 2013.
Deepti Indora, Matia Mahal, Urmila Kailash Gangwar, Madipur (SC), Shweta Saini, Tilak Nagar, Priyanka Gautam, Kondli (SC), and Neelam Pahalwan from Najafgarh are the party's women candidates so far.
The most interesting poll battle on New Dehli, Kalkaji seats
Kejriwal, the three-time MLA from New Delhi since 2013, is locked in an intense triangular poll battle against two former chief ministers' sons. The BJP fielded Parvesh Verma, who is the sons of two former chief ministers of Delhi Sahib Singh Verma, while the Congress pitted former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit's son Sandeep Dikshit. Another interesting fight in the Kalkaji constituency where Delhi Chief Minister Atishi is facing a tough challenge from BJP leader Ramesh Bidhuri and Congress' Alka Lamba.
Earlier, the saffron party, which has been out of power since 1998, had released its first list of candidates, naming 29 nominees for the upcoming election a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a blistering attack against the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on January 4.
Constituencies - Candidate's name
- Narela - Raj Karan Khatri
- Timarpur - Surya Prakash Khatri
- Mundka - Gajendra Daral
- Kirari - Bajrang Shukla
- Sultanpur Majra (SC) - Karam Singh Karma
- Shakur Basti - Karnail Singh
- Tri Nagar - Tilak Ram Gupta
- Sadar Bazar - Manoj Kumar Jindal
- Chandni Chowk - Satish Jain
- Matia Mahal - Deepti Indora
- Ballimaran - Kamal Bagri
- Moti Nagar - Harish Khurana
- Madipur (SC) - Urmila Kailash Gangwal
- Hari Nagar - Shyam Sharma
- Tilak Nagar - Shweta Saini
- Vikaspuri - Dr. Pankaj Kumar Singh
- Uttam Nagar - Pawan Sharma
- Dwarka - Parduymn Rajput
- Matiala - Sandeep Sehrawat
- Najafgarh - Neelam Pahalwan
- Palam - Kuldeep Solanki
- Rajinder Nagar - Umang Bajaj
- Kasturba Nagar - Neeraj Basoya
- Tughlakabad - Rohtas Bidhuri
- Okhla - Manish Chaudhary
- Kondli (SC) - Priyanka Gautam
- Laxmi Nagar - Abhay Verma
- Seelampur - Anil Gaur
- Karawal Nagar - Kapil Mishra
Meanwhile, JP Nadda-led party selected candidates after reviewing over 2,000 applications received from the workers and leaders from all 70 constituencies in Delhi for the ticket to contest the elections.
The BJP out of power in Delhi since 1998 is making all efforts to upstage the ruling AAP that has dominated the assembly elections since 2015. The AAP romped home winning 67 and 62 seats, respectively in the last two assembly polls in 2015 and 2020. Despite winning the Lok Sabha polls on all the seven constituencies in 2014, 2019 and 2024, the BJP has failed miserably to translate that success in the assembly polls. The party scraped through with just three seats in 2015 and eight seats in 2020.
The elections for the 70 Assembly constituencies in Delhi will be held on February 5 and the results will be declared on February 8.