The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday, 2 March, announced its first list of 195 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. In Delhi, the party named candidates on five out of seven seats.
Chandni Chowk: Praveen Khandelwal
North East Delhi: Manoj Tiwari
New Delhi: Bansuri Swaraj
West Delhi: Kamaljeet Sehrawat
South Delhi: Ramvir Bidhuri
Names of candidates from North Delhi and East Delhi seats are yet to be announced.
Interestingly, four out of these five candidates have been given preference over sitting MPs in the Delhi Assembly.
In Chandni Chowk, Khandelwal, founder and general secretary of the Confederation of All India Traders, has been given ticket over former health minister Harsh Vardhan.
In New Delhi, Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, will contest on the party ticket as opposed to Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi.
In West Delhi, Kamaljeet Sehrawat has been announced as the candidate over sitting MP Parvesh Verma. Verma, along with Union Minister Anurag Thakur, was accused of delivering hate speeches over anti-CAA protests in 2020.
In South Delhi, BJP has chosen Ramvir Bidhuri as its candidate over sitting MP Ramesh Bidhuri who in September 2023 abused then Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Kunwar Danish Ali using Islamophobic slurs inside the Parliament. Ramvir Bidhuri is currently the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Delhi Legislative Assembly.
East Delhi MP Gautam Gambhir has already announced that he won't be contesting the elections. The fate of North West Delhi MP Hans Raj Hans hangs in balance now.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)