BJP renominates 4 MPs in Delhi, fate of 3 in suspense

Amid uncertainty on whether there would be an alliance between Congress and AAP, the BJP on Sunday evening renominated four of its seven sitting MPs, including Union Minister Harsh Vardhan, for the Lok Sabha elections while triggering speculation about benching three others.

Harsh Vardhan has been renominated from Chandni Chowk while Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari will contest again from North East Delhi. Parvesh Verma, son of former chief minister of Delhi Sahib Singh Verma, has got a ticket from West Delhi while Ramesh Bidhuri has been chosen from South Delhi.

However, the first list for Delhi does not include New Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi, North West MP Udit Raj and East Delhi MP Mahesh Girri. Their absence in the list is an indication that the leadership is looking for fresh faces in these constituencies.

Cricketer Gautam Gambhir, who recently joined BJP, is a probable candidate for New Delhi while former IPS officer Deepak Mishra may also find a place in the list.

There was speculation that Harsh Vardhan could be shifted to East Delhi while giving Girri a seat in Gujarat. Though the shifting did not happen, the absence of Girri’s name in the list at present shows that BJP is thinking about a change in the seat. Raj, a prominent Schedule Caste face, was not in the good books of the leadership and he may also finally face the axe. The BJP has been delaying the announcement for long as they wanted to see how the talks between Congress and AAP progress. However, the alliance talks saw flip flops almost on a daily basis with AAP and Congress blaming each other.

BJP fields Hardeep Puri in Amritsar

BJP has also announced the candidature of Union Minister Hardeep Puri from Amritsar. Puri is presently a Rajya Sabha MP. In 2014, BJP had fielded Arun Jaitley after denying ticket to Navjyot Singh Sidhu against Congress’ Amarinder Singh. Jaitley had lost the polls.

In Indore, which was represented by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, BJP has fielded Shankar Lalwani while in UP’s Ghosi, it has fielded Harinarayan Rajbhar.