BJP Releases First List of Candidates for Delhi Assembly Elections; Parvesh Verma to Take on Arvind Kejriwal

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has unveiled its first list of candidates for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections, announcing contenders for 29 of the 70 seats in the national capital. This marks the beginning of what is expected to be a heated political battle in Delhi, scheduled for February.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, has already declared its full list of candidates, underscoring its readiness to defend its stronghold.

In a high-stakes move, former BJP Member of Parliament (MP) Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma will contest from the New Delhi constituency against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Speaking to the media, Mr. Verma expressed gratitude to the BJP leadership for their confidence in him. "When Delhi faced the COVID-19 crisis, Arvind Kejriwal was distributing a 'free bottle on every bottle.' Under BJP, we will clean the Yamuna, curb pollution, and ensure progress for Delhi," he said.

Adding to the political drama, Kailash Gehlot, a former Delhi Transport Minister and once a close ally of Arvind Kejriwal, has joined the BJP after leaving AAP earlier this year. Gehlot will contest from the Bijwasan seat.

Ramesh Bidhuri, the former BJP MP from South Delhi, will now take on Chief Minister Atishi in the Kalkaji constituency. Notably, Mr. Bidhuri was not given a ticket by the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Congress has fielded senior leader Alka Lamba for the Kalkaji seat.

Reacting to Bidhuri’s candidature, Chief Minister Atishi remarked, “Ramesh Bidhuri was an MP for 10 years, yet his party denied him a Lok Sabha ticket. How can the people of Kalkaji trust his work?”

Mr. Bidhuri, however, hit back, stating, “Delhi has suffered immensely under Arvind Kejriwal’s governance. The Kalkaji constituency has been plagued by mismanagement and neglect under Chief Minister Atishi. I thank the BJP leadership for trusting me to reclaim this seat for the people.”

Another significant entrant in the BJP's roster is Arvinder Singh Lovely, a former minister in Sheila Dikshit’s Congress government from 2003 to 2013. Having joined the BJP last year, he will contest from the Gandhinagar seat in east Delhi.

The upcoming elections are being seen as a crucial contest between the BJP, which aims to wrest control of Delhi, and AAP, which has held power since 2015 after securing two consecutive landslide victories. However, despite its dominance in the Assembly, AAP has failed to win any Lok Sabha seats in Delhi since 2014, with the BJP sweeping all seven parliamentary constituencies.

Meanwhile, sources indicate that Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva will not contest in the Assembly elections, putting to rest speculation about his possible candidacy.

The Congress, which ruled Delhi for 15 consecutive years under Sheila Dikshit, has struggled to regain its footing, failing to win a single seat in the last two Assembly elections. Despite being part of the Opposition alliance INDIA at the national level, Congress and AAP are contesting separately in Delhi, mirroring their approach in the Haryana elections last year.

This three-way contest is expected to test alliances and political strategies, with the BJP aiming to end AAP’s near-decade-long reign and Congress hoping for a comeback.