New Delhi: Cricketer Gautam Gambhir, who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party last month, has been fielded as the party’s candidate from the East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency. He will be taking on Aam Aadmi Party’s key education reformist Atishi and Congress’s former Delhi minister Arvinder Singh Lovely.

Though there was initial speculation that the BJP may field Gambhir, who has made it a habit of taking on the party’s political opponents on social media, from the New Delhi constituency, it decided against it.

The name of the sitting MP and lawyer-politician Meenakshi Lekhi has been announced for the New Delhi seat. She will face senior Congress leader Ajay Maken, whose name was cleared by the Congress for the seat this morning. The Aam Aadmi Party has fielded Brajesh Goel from the seat.

By fielding Gambhir from East Delhi, the BJP has shown that it is willing to replace weak candidates. The seat was won by social activist and Art of Living faculty member Maheish Girri. He was also a the founder of NGO Navbharat Sewa Samiti and a member of the India Against Corruption movement. However, he left IAC following differences with Arvind Kejriwal and joined the BJP.

Girri was considered a weak hand in comparison to Atishi, who has made a mark through her work as adviser to the deputy chief minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia. She is also credited with having reformed the schooling system and transformed a large number of school buildings in the city.

Since Girri could not have matched Atishi’s appeal, BJP has brought in Gambhir.

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The party had yesterday also announced the names of four Lok Sabha MPs who have been chosen to defend their seats. They were Harsh Vardhan from Chandni Chowk, Manoj Tiwari from North East Delhi, Ramesh Bidhuri from South Delhi and Parvesh Verma from West Delhi.

The lone seat for which a candidate has not been announced by BJP is the SC reserved constituency of North West Delhi. Last time Udit Raj had won the seat on a BJP ticket, but this time there is speculation that he too may be replaced. A decision is expected soon, as April 23 is the last date for filing nominations.