With less than a month to go for the Delhi Assembly elections, the BJP has released its second list of 29 candidates. The list includes Delhi BJP Vice President Kapil Mishra – a former minister who was earlier with the AAP – who has been fielded from the Karawal Nagar constituency, and former Delhi chief minister Madan Lal Khurana’s son, Harish Khurana.
Delhi BJP’s Mandir Prakoshth (temple cell) chief Karnail Singh will contest against AAP’s former minister Satyendar Jain from Shakur Basti and Mr Khurana has been fielded from Moti Nagar. Parvesh Verma, who is the son of former Delhi chief minister Sahib Singh Verma, had been named in the party’s first list.
Only one sitting MLA – Mohan Singh Bisht – has been dropped from Karawal Nagar, probably to accommodate Mr Mishra, who represented the constituency earlier, when he was with the AAP. Mr Mishra joined the BJP in 2019 and made headlines a year later after referring to sites where protests were taking place against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as “mini-Pakistans”. He had also issued an ultimatum to the Delhi Police to clear anti-CAA protesters from Jaffrabad and Chandbagh or face the consequences.
Neelam Krishan Pahalwan, who was elected as the BJP councillor from the Dichaon Kalan ward with the highest number of votes, will contest from Najafgarh, which was the constituency of former Delhi minister and recent BJP entrant Kailash Gahlot. The former AAP leader featured in the first list and will be contesting from Bijwasan.
The BJP has named five women in the second list, taking its number of women candidates to seven so far.
With Saturday’s list, the party has now named candidates for 58 of Delhi’s 70 seats. The first list included the names of Parvesh Verma, former MP Ramesh Bidhuri and former Congress leader and minister Arvinder Singh Lovely.
Seeking to gain a first-mover advantage, the AAP had declared candidates for all 70 seats in December itself, while the Congress has named 47 candidates so far.
Delhi will vote on February 5 and counting of votes will be held on February 8.