Hours after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced its first list of 29 candidates for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar asserted that the people of Delhi are poised to re-elect three-time Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Kakkar criticized the BJP for not naming a Chief Ministerial candidate. “BJP has no CM face. They have only released the list of 29 candidates. Even the Delhi BJP Chief has declined to contest, aware of the ground reality. The public of Delhi has already made up their mind to elect Arvind Kejriwal,” Kakkar stated.
The BJP’s list includes key figures such as Parvesh Verma, who will contest from the New Delhi constituency against Arvind Kejriwal and Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit, making it a high-profile three-cornered contest. Verma, son of former Delhi CM Sahib Singh Verma, is a former Member of Parliament.
Other notable BJP candidates include:
- Dushyant Gautam, BJP National General Secretary, from Karol Bagh.
- Manjinder Singh Sirsa from Rajouri Garden.
- Kailash Gehlot from Bijwasan.
- Arvinder Singh Lovely, former Congress leader, from Gandhi Nagar.
- Ramesh Bidhuri, who will contest against Delhi CM Atishi in Kalkaji.
While BJP eyes an improved performance, its leadership faces the challenge of competing against AAP’s dominant record under Kejriwal, who led the party to landslide victories in the last two elections, securing 67 out of 70 seats in 2015 and 62 seats in 2020.
The Congress, which once ruled Delhi for 15 years, has struggled to regain ground, failing to win a single seat in the last two elections.
The Election Commission has yet to announce the official dates for the elections, expected in February 2025.