Lok Sabha elections 2019: BJP retains 4 MPs for Delhi, decision on 3 more seats to be taken on Monday

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Updated: Apr 22, 2019 08:01 IST

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday retained sitting Members of Parliament (MPs) on four out of seven parliamentary constituencies—South, West, Chandni Chowk and North East—in Delhi for the Lok Sabha elections 2019. Senior BJP leaders said the decision on the remaining seats—New Delhi, East and North West Delhi— will be taken by Monday.

Union environment minister and Chandni Chowk MP Harsh Vardhan, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari (MP from North East Delhi), West Delhi MP Parvesh Verma and South Delhi MP Ramesh Bidhuri will contest from their constituencies.

A senior BJP leader, who is aware of the development, said, “There was no confusion on these four names. A decision on the remaining three constituencies will be taken by Sunday night or Monday.”

The BJP, which started the candidate selection process for Delhi last month, had put the list on hold, as it decided to “wait and watch” the developments regarding the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) alliance. But as suspense over the tie-up continues and with just two remaining for nominations to be filed for the elections, the party decided to announce the first list of its candidates for Delhi.

Harsh Vardhan will file his nomination on Monday morning. There were speculations that Vardhan, who has been a three-time MLA from Krishna Nagar in East Delhi, would be shifted to East Delhi constituency.

It is going to be an interesting contest in Chandni Chowk.

While BJP has fielded Harsh Vardhan, the Congress is planning to field three-time former chief minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit from the constituency, which has a sizeable population of Muslims and Baniyas (traders).

The Aam Aadmi Party has fielded Pankaj Gupta from the constituency.

North East Delhi MP and Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari, who is the party’s star campaigner, will take on AAP’s Dilip Pandey. Actor-turned-politician, Tiwari, who had joined the BJP just ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, has emerged as the party’s poorvanchali face in the national capital.

In a departure from its tradition to appoint a member of the Baniya or Punjabi community as its Delhi unit chief, the BJP appointed Tiwari as Delhi BJP chief in 2016 to garner the support of the poorvanchali community, which now plays a decisive role on most parliamentary constituencies in city.

While Verma—who won the West Delhi seat by 2.68 lakh votes in his first parliamentary elections --has emerged as party’s Jat face, Bidhuri has a stronghold in the Gurjar community largely concentrated in the rural areas of South Delhi. He is pitted against AAP’s Raghav Chadha.

With the party reserving its decision on three seats — New Delhi, North West Delhi and East Delhi — speculations were rife on Sunday evening that the BJP is planning to field new faces from these seats.