Delhi Assembly Elections 2020: BJP announces first list of 57 candidates

The BJP on Friday kept the suspense over who will fight AAP supremo and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi Assembly elections, even as it announced its first list of 57 candidates while refusing to give another chance for 27 candidates who contested the polls five years ago.

Of the 57 candidates, four are women while 11 are Dalits. In the 2015 polls, BJP could manage only three seats.

While all the BJP sitting MLAs Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta (Rohini), OP Sharma (Vishwas Nagar) and Jagdish Pradhan (Mustafabad) were renominated, it fielded former AAP MLAs Kapil Mishra and Anil Bajpai, who rebelled against Kejriwal. Mishra had won as AAP MLA from Karawal Nagar but he was shifted to Model Town while Bajpai will contest again from Gandhi Nagar.

However, a third AAP MLA who deserted the party Devinder Shekhawat did not find his name in the list from Bijwasan where he won last time.

The BJP also fielded former Congress MLA Surender Singh Bittu, who joined the party last year, from Timarpur where he won twice earlier.

All eyes were on the New Delhi seat where Kejriwal is seeking re-election for the third time but BJP chose not to reveal its cards, amid indication that they are looking for a candidate who can give a tight fight to the Chief Minister.

It has fielded youth leader Ravi Negi against Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, while BJP National Secretary and former MLA Sardar R P Singh will take on AAP's young face Raghav Chadha in Rajendra Nagar.

As soon as the BJP list came out, the AAP took to Twitter to ask its opponent to disclose its chief ministerial candidate. It showed a classroom where a student passes on a chit, which read "who is the CM candidate?", to his classmate who looks back in anger.

The BJP has also fielded the younger brother of former Chief Minister later Sahib Singh Verma's brother Azad Singh from Mundka while South Delhi MP Ramesh Bidhuri's nephew Vikram Bidhuri was renominated from Tughlaqabad.

Announcing the list, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said the rest 13 candidates will be announced soon. BJP leaders said its ally Akali Dal is likely to get 3-4 seats though it has demanded six seats this time as against four it contested in 2015 polls.

While some reports suggested BJP may accommodate LJP and JD(U), Delhi BJP leaders indicated that it was unlikely to part with seats to these smaller players in the national capital.

Among the seats, which are yet to be announced, include Krishna Nagar from where Kiran Bedi, who was then declared Chief Ministerial face, contested and lost. Union Minister and former Delhi BJP chief Harsh Vardhan had won from this seat before that.