Poll battle heats up with high-profile contests

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday unveiled its list of 29 candidates for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections, highlighting several high-profile contests, including the New Delhi and Kalkaji constituencies.

In the New Delhi constituency, the BJP has fielded Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma, who will face a fierce battle against Arvind Kejriwal, ex-Chief Minister of Delhi and AAP’s candidate. Also contesting is Sandeep Dikshit from the Congress, the son of former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. The contest is shaping up as a political family showdown, with Verma himself being the son of Sahib Singh Verma, a former Delhi CM.

Parvesh Verma has represented the West Delhi Lok Sabha seat in the past, winning in both 2014 and 2019. He has also served on several parliamentary committees, including the Joint Committee on Salaries and Allowances of Members of Parliament and the Standing Committee on Urban Development. In 2013, he won the Mehrauli Assembly seat, defeating Congress’s Yoganand Shastri, the then-incumbent speaker of the Delhi Vidhan Sabha.

In Kalkaji, the BJP has nominated Ramesh Bidhuri, a former South Delhi MP, to take on Delhi CM Atishi from AAP and Congress’s Alka Lamba. Bidhuri’s candidacy marks a political comeback after being denied a ticket in the last Lok Sabha elections. He previously won the South Delhi seat in 2014 and 2019 and is also a former three-term MLA from the Tughlakabad constituency. Bidhuri’s return to the fray is expected to intensify the battle in this key Delhi seat.

Manjinder Singh Sirsa, a prominent Sikh leader in the Delhi BJP, will contest from Rajouri Garden. Sirsa, a former MLA from the same constituency representing the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), has also served as the President of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee and is currently the National Secretary of the BJP.

Dushyant Gautam, BJP’s National General Secretary, will contest from the Karol Bagh (SC) seat. Gautam, a former Rajya Sabha MP from Haryana, has held several key roles within the BJP and has been an active member of student politics through his association with the ABVP.

BJP vice-president Raj Kumar Bhatia will contest from Adarsh Nagar against AAP’s Mukesh Goel. Bhatia has previously served as a district president of the party and contested this seat unsuccessfully in the past.

Further, among the BJP’s incumbent MLAs, four have been re-nominated. These include Vijender Gupta from Rohini, Om Prakash Sharma from Vishwas Nagar, Jitendra Mahajan from Rohtas Nagar and Ajay Mahawar from Ghonda.

In a notable shift, the BJP has replaced Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, who vacated his Assembly seat after winning the South Delhi Lok Sabha seat, with AAP defector Narayan Dutt Sharma in Badarpur.

However, some incumbents have not been given tickets. Gandhi Nagar MLA Anil Bajpayee has been denied a ticket, with Congress turncoat Arvinder Singh Lovely being fielded in his place. The party has also yet to announce candidates for Laxmi Nagar and Karwali Nagar constituencies, currently held by MLAs Abhay Verma and Mohan Singh Bisht, respectively.