Delhi BJP to send revised candidate list

NEW DELHI:

Delhi BJP

is likely to send the

revised list

of 25 probable candidates for the seven

Lok Sabha

seats in the capital to the central election committee in a couple of days. State chief Manoj Tiwari said the central leadership had asked him to make certain changes discussed among senior party leaders in the third week of March.

“We have added new names to the list following the discussion with the party president. The new list will be sent in a day or two. It’s now up to the party president to pick the best possible candidates in the central election committee meeting,” Tiwari said.

The elections will be notified in Delhi on April 16, while the last date to file nominations is April 23. Polling will be held on May 12.

Party sources said last month the central leadership had asked the Delhi leaders involved in the selection process to redraw the list after it emerged that no preliminary discussion had taken place on possible candidates and four separate lists were presented to BJP president Amit Shah. The delegation that had met Shah to discuss the candidates also included 2-3 aspirants.

“Amit Shah was annoyed that the Delhi leaders had prepared the list without consulting each other and Manoj Tiwari was not even kept in the loop. The state unit was told to prepare a new list, get consensus on the names and come back,” said a senior party functionary involved in the election process at the national level.

The list of 25 includes a panel of three candidates for five seats, while five potential names have been shortlisted for Chandni Chowk and East Delhi constituencies where the leaders could not reach a consensus, sources said. The party functionaries shortlisting the names include Lok Sabha election in-charge for Delhi Nirmala Sitharaman, co-in-charge Jaibhan Singh Pawaiyya, general secretary in-charge for Delhi Shyam Jaju, Tiwari and other prominent state leaders.

The candidates will be announced a few days before the last date for filing nominations, sources said. A senior party functionary said that the central leadership is also keeping an eye on how the alliance between Congress and AAP pans out.

Delhi BJP media in-charge Pratyush Kanth, however, said that alliance will not impact BJP’s candidate selection and the election. “BJP is a cadre-based party and we have been campaigning at the ground level. Alliance or no alliance, the party will give the best possible candidates to the city,” he added.

However, sources said that internal surveys and feedback from party workers shows that sitting MPs may face a strong anti-incumbency. “With poor feedback of sitting MPs on almost all seats, the party may decide to change them if AAP and Congress join hands. If the alliance doesn’t happen, there is a possibility of most sitting MPs getting a ticket for re-election,” said a senior party functionary.

To fight anti-incumbency, BJP has changed almost one-third of candidates in all other states. In Chhattisgarh, for example, all 10 sitting MPs have been replaced with fresh faces.