Delhi Assembly Polls 2025: Amid 'uncertainty' over tickets, BJP leaders make beeline for AAP

New Delhi: "Uncertainty" over Delhi Assembly poll tickets has prompted half a dozen BJP leaders to cross over to AAP while many more could soon make the switch, saffron party leaders said on Saturday.

Elections to the 70-member Delhi Assembly are due in February.

The BJP, which has been out of power since 1998, was routed by AAP in the 2015 and the 2020 elections, managing three and eight seats, respectively.

In recent weeks, six BJP leaders who unsuccessfully contested the 2020 polls joined AAP and the Arvind Kejriwal-led party has already fielded three of them.

Three others -- Pravesh Ratan, Jitender Singh Shunty and Surinder Pal Singh Bittu -- are also likely to be fielded by AAP.

Ratan was defeated by Raaj Kumar Anand, a former minister in the AAP government, in the Patel Nagar seat by a margin of more than 30,000 votes.

Shunty and Bittu are likely to replace AAP heavyweights Ram Niwas Goel and Dilip Pandey, respectively. Goel, the speaker in the outgoing assembly, represents the Shahdara seat while Pandey is the Timarpur MLA.

Bittu joined AAP -- which is eyeing a third term in the assembly -- earlier this week.

Earlier, Brahm Singh Tanwar, BB Tyagi and Anil Jha joined the ruling party and were fielded from the Chhatarpur, Laxmi Nagar and the Kirari constituencies.

Tanwar and Jha had lost the 2020 polls from the same seats by narrow margins.

"The exit of mid-level functionaries and leaders from the BJP will continue as there is uncertainty over being considered for tickets due to factors such as outsiders being given priority and delay in announcement of candidates," said a senior party leader.

The process may speed up as AAP is actively scouting for potential candidates from the BJP with experience to replace its sitting MLAs facing anti-incumbency, he claimed.

A BJP frontal organisation in-charge said, "I have been associated with the BJP for two decades. I have been asking for a ticket to contest the assembly polls since the last two elections. I am not sure my name is even being considered this time and it forces me to take some decision about my future career." A party office-bearer rued that a number of prominent leaders from the Congress and AAP who recently joined the BJP were being considered as frontrunners for tickets.

There are more than a dozen leaders from both parties who are now in the BJP. These former MLAs with experience of contesting multiple elections were once considered as threats to the aspirations of local BJP ticket-seekers.

These leaders include Arvinder Singh Lovely, Naseeb Singh, Tarvinder Marwah, Neeraj Basoya and Raaj Kumar Chahuhan -- all former MLAs who quit the Congress to join the BJP in recent months. Lovely is a former Delhi Congress president and minister in the city government.

AAP leaders now in the BJP include former ministers Kailash Gahlot and Anand, and ex-MLAs Kartar Singh, Manoj Kumar and ND Sharma.