BJP puts list on hold again, it may come out after Diwali

With around 1,500 party leaders applying for tickets, it seems the BJP leadership is unwilling to spoil Diwali for most of them.

Having failed several deadlines to announce its first list of candidates for the Delhi Assembly polls, Delhi BJP president Vijay Goel said on Thursday that party tickets will be announced only after the festival of lights, being celebrated across the country on Sunday.

Earlier, the senior party leaders, including Sushma Swaraj and Nitin Gadkari had gone on record to announce the first list on October 31.

Hectic parleys

The core group of the party has been holding hectic parleys to shortlist candidates for the Assembly polls over the last two days.

Ticket-seekers have been speculating about the tentative list being tabled before the central election committee of the party, which met on Thursday evening to clear list of Madhya Pradesh.

It was attended by L K Advani, Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley among others.

Sources in the party, however, said the Delhi BJP election committee is yet to arrive at the final list.   

The Bharatiya Janata Party is taking several factors into account such as the likely switchover of some ticket aspirants to other parties once they are denied ticket.
Meanhwile, party leaders said most of the sitting party MLAs are likely to repeated.

“The sitting MLAs having a good track record will be repeated. The party will give representation to all sections of society in ticket distribution,” said Vijay Goel.

While most of the party MLAs are seeking renomination, some senior MLAs want to pass on the baton to their heirs, which has faced opposition from some of the next generation leaders within the party.

While Goel counted ‘work at grassroots level, clean image, commitment to the party and ability to win’ as some of the main criteria for selection as party nominee, sources in the party said even those candidates who lost by narrow margin during 2008 Assembly elections are also in the reckoning.