Delhi BJP gathers names of ticket probables for 7 seats in day long feedback exercise

PTI, Feb 27, 2024, 10:25 AM IST

Representative image (Source: PTI)

New Delhi: The BJP has intensified the Lok Sabha candidate selection process, with party’s Delhi unit observers on Monday gathering the names of ticket probables on seven parliamentary seats of the city, at the district level.

In the wake of the AAP and Congress alliance in Delhi, buzz is growing stronger that the BJP may not field all its sitting MPs in the Lok Sabha polls to be held in April-May.

Further, in the run up to the selection of candidates, the BJP has been conducting three surveys and doing a performance analysis of its 7 MPs in Delhi, said a top functionary of Delhi BJP.

“There are talks of at least half of the present MPs losing ticket this time. Buzz is also strong that all will be replaced, but it’s too early to say anything because these matters are decided by the national leadership,” he said.

In 2019, the BJP repeated its sitting MPs on five of the seven seats. Gautam Gambhir and Hans Raj Hans were fresh candidates in East Delhi and North West Delhi constituencies.

All the BJP candidates won with huge margins in 2019 and polled more votes than that obtained by the candidates of the Congress and the AAP that fought the elections independently.

“We never take any election lightly. But we are not bothered by the alliance between the AAP and the Congress in Delhi and making our preparations with full dedication to win all the 7 seats third time in a row,” said another senior Delhi BJP leader.

The district level leaders, including president, general secretary, sitting councilors, candidates of previous Assembly polls, state functionaries, district incharges and co-incharges took part in the feedback gathering exercise conducted by teams of two senior leaders sent from the state unit.

“Each local leader provided three names of probables. Roughly, five to seven names of probable candidates for the seven Lok Sabha seats. The observers have submitted their reports to Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva,” said party leaders.

The feedback exercise revealed that there was a lot of enthusiasm among the party leaders to contest the Lok Sabha polls, they said.

“Apart from sitting MPs, the names of many state office bearers were suggested by the leaders at the district level,” they said.

The process for selection of candidates from Delhi may be wrapped up in the next four to six weeks and the tickets could be declared around mid April, they added.