The BJP's Central Election Committee, which includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Friday met to finalise the second list of party candidates for the Delhi Assembly polls. The BJP's first list of 29 candidates for the polls to the 70-member Delhi Assembly came out on January 4. It has fielded former MP Parvesh Verma from the New Delhi seat against ex-chief minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal.
According to sources, all 41 seats were discussed in the BJP Central Election Committee meeting. The names for 29 seats have already been declared. However, names on a few seats are still undecided. The Prime Minister suggested that the Delhi BJP leaders should work harder.
The party has named another former MP, Ramesh Bidhuri, from Kalkaji, where Chief Minister and AAP candidate Atishi is in the fray. Besides Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda joined the other members of the CEC in finalising the names of candidates.
After arriving at the BJP headquarters, Modi walked towards the media contingent covering the meeting to extend greetings for the New Year and upcoming festivals. Shah and Nadda were earlier in the day closeted with Delhi BJP leaders to deliberate on the list of probable candidates and the party's strategy.
The BJP is pulling out all stops to end the Aam Aadmi Party's 10-year-old reign in the national capital. Despite the party sweeping to victory in all seven Lok Sabha seats in three national elections since 2014, the AAP has maintained a stranglehold on power in the city in two consecutive assembly elections in 2015 and 2020.
