BJP Banking on six new faces in Delhi

BJP’s changing six of seven sitting MPs is an admission that they were ineffective, says AAP.

Bharatiya Janata Party is banking on six new faces in Delhi for 2024 parliamentary elections. It has this time replaced its six out of total seven candidates except Manoj Tiwari who contested in 2019. BJP announced its second list of candidates earlier this week for 2024 Lok Sabha election. In its second list, BJP dropped its two incumbent MPs from East and Northwest Delhi and fielded greenhorns Harsh Malhotra and Yogendra Chandolia.

Earlier in its first list, BJP had dropped its four incumbent MPs including Ramesh Bhidhuri, Dr. Harshvardhan, Meenakshi Lekhi and Parvesh Verma and fielded new faces. The saffron party announced names of the two remaining Lok Sabha seats in Delhi in its second list and replaced incumbent East Delhi MP and former star batsman of Indian cricket team Gautam Gambhir and fielded Harsh Malhotara. The party has also replaced Hans Raj Hans, the incumbent MP from Northwest Delhi and announced Yogendra Chandolia as his candidate.

With this, the party changed all its incumbent MPs except Manoj Tiwari in the National Capital. Among the seven outgoing Delhi MPs, all of whom came from the BJP, only Manoj Tiwari from the North East Delhi seat got the party ticket this time. All six, including Ramesh Bhidhuri, Hans Raj Hans, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Gautam Gambhir, Meenakshi Lekhi, and Parvesh Verma, have been changed.

Last week, BJP announced the names of candidates for the five Lok Sabha seats in Delhi out of seven. It fielded Bansuri Swaraj from New Delhi, Kamaljeet Sharawat from West Delhi, Praveen Khandelwal from Chandni Chowk, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri from South Delhi, and Manoj Tiwari from Northeast Delhi. Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva, said “We welcome the announcement of candidates for the remaining two Lok Sabha states of Delhi.” He added, “As president, I feel proud that the party leadership has chosen all seven candidates from strong organisational backgrounds. We will fight this Lok Sabha election with positive agendas and will gift all seven seats to the party.”

On the other hand, Aam Aadmi Party said that the fact that BJP changed six of the seven sitting MPs was an admission that they were ineffective. “BJP has changed 6 out of 7 candidates. This is an admission by the BJP that their MPs were either corrupt or ineffective. In either case, the BJP should apologise to the people of Delhi for wasting their five years,” AAP said in a statement.

The second list of BJP candidates includes the names of 72 candidates from different states. The list also includes several big names, including Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Anurag Thakur, and former Haryana chief minister ML Khattar.

Till now, the saffron party has announced candidates for 51 seats from Uttar Pradesh, 20 from West Bengal, 24 from Madhya Pradesh, 15 each from Gujarat and Rajasthan, 12 from Kerala, 9 seats from Telangana, 11 from Assam, 11 each from Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, 5 from Delhi, 2 from J&K, 3 from Uttarakhand, 2 from Arunachal Pradesh, and 1 each from Goa, Tripura, Andaman & Nicobar, and Daman & Diu.