New Delhi: The Delhi BJP has fielded advocate Shikha Rai, the first woman chairperson of the Standing Committee of the erstwhile South Delhi Municipal Corporation, against AAP government’s Transport Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj from Greater Kailash (GK) constituency in the February 5 Assembly election.
The BJP candidate in the 2020 election lost by 16,809 votes to Bhardwaj who is a three-time legislator from the south Delhi seat. The Congress has fielded Garvit Singhvi from the seat.
Apart from Rai’s name, the BJP’s fourth list of nominees released on Thursday carried the name of another challenger of a Delhi government minister. Anil Vashisth will fight against Environment Minister Gopal Rai in Babarpur constituency in northeast Delhi. The Congress has fielded Mohd Ishrq Khan from the seat.
With the release of nine names in the fourth list, the BJP has now declared 68 candidates out of 70 candidates. Friday is the last day for filing nominations for the election with January 20 as the last day for withdrawal of name.
Burari and Deoli seats are the two constituencies on which the NDA has to announce its candidates.
The fourth list of the BJP was signed and released by Arun Singh, BJP’s National General Secretary and headquarters incharge.
According to the latest list, the BJP has fielded Ravinder Kumar from Bawana reserved seat, Poonam Sharma from Wazirpur, Bhuvan Tanwar from Delhi Cantonment, Chandan Kumar Choudhary from Sangam Vihar and Ravikant Ujjain from Trilokpuri (SC).
The BJP has fielded Sanjay Goyal Shahdara and Praveen Nimesh from Gokalpur (SC).
Earlier, Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva dismissed speculation over the party facing difficulty in naming candidates.
“There is no problem or difficulty. It is part of a strategy. The names will be made public well in time for filing nominations and all candidates will emerge victorious,” he said.
The earlier three lists of BJP carried names of candidates like Parvesh Verma from New Delhi, Ramesh Bidhuri from Kalkaji, Satish Upadhyay from Malviya Nagar, and Arvinder Singh Lovely from Gandhi Nagar.
The BJP has eight legislators and the ruling AAP has 62 MLAs in the outgoing 70-member Assembly. The result of the February 5 election will be declared on February 8.
(IANS)
