New Delhi:The Election Commission of India has called for a preparatory meeting on Wednesday over next year’s Delhi Assembly elections. The dates for the much-anticipated polls will be announced shortly after this meeting.
The AAP has already taken the lead by announcing the names of candidates of all the 70 Assembly seats. While the Congress, which has not been able to open its account in the last two Assembly polls, has released its first list of 21 candidates, and the BJP, which is trying to make a comeback after 25 years, is yet to declare any of its candidates.
AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal has confirmed that he will contest from his New Delhi seat in the upcoming polls while chief minister Atishi will fight from her Kalkaji constituency. The AAP’s list also includes 10 turncoats, seven from the BJP and three from Congress. The party has even dropped 17 sitting MLAs, replaced three other legislators with family members, and swapped candidates in two constituencies.
In a swipe at the BJP, Kejriwal said on X, “BJP is missing. They have no CM face, no team, no planning, and no vision for Delhi. They have only one slogan, only one policy, and only one mission — ‘Remove Kejriwal’. Ask them what they did in five years, and they reply, ‘Cursed Kejriwal a lot.’”
Leaving no margin for its I.N.D.IA. block partner AAP, the Congress is expected to go whole hog and has fielded Sandeep Dikshit, son of the late three-time Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit against Mr Kejriwal. There are indications that the BJP may put forward Parvesh Verma, son of the late chief minister Sahib Singh Verma, for the race from the New Delhi seat.
If Verma is finalised to take on the AAP supremo, this may lead to a triangular fight between three heavyweights, with Dikshit trying to regain a hold on the legacy seat, which was lost by his mother at the altar of Kejriwal.
Sources said that the BJP candidates’ list, expected around the last week of this month, is likely to have a significant number of fresh faces.
Ahead of elections to the 70-member Delhi Assembly, due in February, the BJP has already launched a massive outreach campaign to get a foothold in the city’s slums, considered to be strongholds of the ruling AAP.
The party has received over 2,000 applications from the workers and leaders from all the 70 constituencies for the ticket to contest the elections, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said.
“A significant enthusiasm for the BJP is being witnessed among various sections of the society in Delhi as the city gears up for the assembly elections,” he said in a statement.
The BJP leaders said the process for candidates' selection was in an advanced stage and three probable on each constituency were already shortlisted. Party sources indicated that the final list of candidates might be released by the end of December, following a series of selection meetings after the parliamentary session concludes on December 20.
The BJP is likely to focus on new faces, including women and youth leaders with strong grassroots connections. Leaders who have lost two or more elections are unlikely to be fielded, while close calls in previous polls are being carefully analysed. Recent entrants to the BJP, including former Congress leaders Arvinder Singh Lovely and Raj Kumar Chauhan, may also feature in the final list.
The BJP, which has been 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.
