Delhi BJP List of candidates: As BJP released its first list of candidates, the party announced five names from Delhi for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. Four sitting MPs were dropped from the list from Delhi, including Meenakshi Lekhi, Harsh Vardhan, Parvesh Verma and Ramesh Bidhuri. The party is yet to announce its candidates from East Delhi and North West Delhi. Bansuri Swaraj, the daughter of former Union minister Sushma Swaraj, is all set to make her poll debut and has been given ticket from the New Delhi seat. Manoj Tiwari, a renowned Bhojpuri actor-singer and two-time incumbent MP from North East Delhi, has been re-nominated for the seat. He stands as the sole incumbent MP among the announced candidates. The Lok Sabha elections are likely to begin in April-May.
Former South Delhi mayor and Delhi BJP general secretary Kamaljeet Sehrawat has been named as the BJP’s candidate for the West Delhi constituency, replacing two-time incumbent MP Parvesh Verma, son of former Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma. Praveen Khandelwal, the secretary of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), has been selected as the BJP candidate for the Chandni Chowk constituency. This decision sees the party replacing two-time MP and former Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan from the seat.
In a surprising decision, the saffron party has opted not to nominate its two-time MP from South Delhi, Ramesh Bidhuri, and instead awarded a poll ticket to Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, the Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly. Delhi BJP leaders speculated that Ramesh Bidhuri lost his ticket due to a recent controversy involving his abusive and derogatory behaviour towards a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Danish Ali in Parliament.
Here’s full list of BJP’s Lok Sabha election candidates from Delhi:
Chandni Chowk – Praveen Khandelwal
North East Delhi – Manoj Tiwari
New Delhi – Bansuri Swaraj
West Delhi- Kamaljeet Sehrawat
South Delhi – Ramvir Singh Bidhuri
East Delhi – Harsh Malhotra
North West Delhi (SC) – Yogendra Chandolia
Meanwhile, hours before the candidate announcement, incumbent MP from East Delhi Gautam Gambhir as well as Jayant Singh took to X to announce that they had requested BJP president J P Nadda to release them from his political responsibilities.
In Delhi, the BJP faces competition from the INDIA bloc constituents, including the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress. The AAP has already announced its candidates for East Delhi, West Delhi, New Delhi, and South Delhi constituencies. Meanwhile, the Congress is yet to disclose its candidates for the three seats allocated to it under a seat-sharing arrangement with the AAP—North East Delhi, Chandni Chowk, and North West Delhi.