New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has declared its first list of five candidates for the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi for the upcoming general elections, nominating former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s daughter Bansuri from New Delhi. The party has replaced most of its sitting MPs in the national capital, where it currently holds all seven seats.
Bhojpuri film star and incumbent MP Manoj Tiwari will contest from North-East Delhi, Kamaljeet Sehrawat from West Delhi, Delhi Assembly Opposition Leader Ramvir Singh Bidhuri from South Delhi and Praveen Khandelwal from Chandni Chowk. Tiwari is the only one among the five who has secured a repeat nomination.
Tiwari has been a BJP member and a Lok Sabha MP from the North East Delhi constituency since 2014. He joined the BJP in 2014 and won the seat by a margin of over 3 lakh votes. He retained his seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The party is yet to name its candidates for the North Delhi and East Delhi seats.
Bansuri Swaraj, while talking to ANI, thanked the BJP’s top leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“I feel grateful. I express gratitude towards PM Modi, HM Amit Shah ji, JP Nadda ji and every BJP worker for giving me this opportunity. With the resolution of ‘ab ki baar 400 paar’, every BJP worker will work to make Narendra Modi the ‘PradhanSewak’ for the third time,” Bansuri said.
Delhi has seven Lok Sabha seats, all of which are currently held by the BJP.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress, which will fight as allies, are the two other major political parties in Delhi in the fray.
The AAP and the Congress have agreed to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha election together for all seven seats.
As per the deal struck between the ruling party in Delhi and the grand old party, Congress will fight 3 of the 7 Lok Sabha seats in the national capital, while the AAP will field candidates in the remaining 4 constituencies.
The Congress will fight the Chandni Chowk, North East and North West seats in the Lok Sabha elections, while the AAP will fight New Delhi, West Delhi, South Delhi and East Delhi.
The BJP on Saturday released its first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, covering 16 States and 2 Union Territories, with a total of 195 nominees.
The first list of candidates include 34 ministers from both the Union and state levels, along with the name of the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. The announced names included those for 51 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 20 in West Bengal and five in Delhi. 28 women, and 47 young leaders in BJP’s first list of Lok Sabha candidates for 16 States and Union Territories.
Union ministers whose names have been announced by the BJP in the first list of candidates include Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Bhupender Yadav, Mansukh Mandaviya, Sarbananda Sonowal, Kiren Rijiju, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Arjun Ram Meghwal, G Kishan Reddy, Arjun Munda and Smriti Irani.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest from Varanasi, Home Minister Amit Shah from Gandhinagar, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya from Porbandar, Sarbananda Sonowal from Dibrugarh.