BJP declares list of 62 candidates for Delhi Assembly polls

New Delhi, Jan 19: BJP today declared a list of 62 candidates out of a total of 70 for the February 7 Delhi Assembly elections, with its chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi contesting from Krishna Nagar and former Union Minister Krishna Tirath from Patel Nagar seat.

Former Delhi minister and senior party leader Jagdish Mukhi will contest from Janakpuri seat while former Delhi BJP chief Vijendra Gupta has been fielded from the Rohini seat. The party has decided to field a young face to take on AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal and has nominated former DUSU president and party's BJYM leader Nupur Sharma from the New Delhi constituency.

The party has decided not to field its Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay, who will lead the party. BJP has nominated all its sitting MLAs and will leave some seats for its ally SAD, which had contested in four seats in the last election. The list of 62 party candidates was announced after a meeting of the BJP's Central Election Committee (CEC) chaired by BJP President Amit Shah and attended among others by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Other Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj also attended the CEC meeting.

Former Delhi Assembly Speaker M S Dheer, who switched to BJP from AAP, will contest from Jangpura and former AAP MLA Vinod Kumar Binny will contest from Patpargaj seat where he faces AAP leader Manish Sisodia. Delhi's former mayor Rajni Abby will contest from Timarpur seat, while senior party leader R P Singh will contest from Rajindra Nagar seat.

"The party has taken care that all sections of the society were given due representation. The party has renominated all its sitting MLAs and fielded over 20 youth and five women candidates," BJP general secretary and Union Minister J P Nadda told reporters after the CEC meeting. Against 12 SC seats, the party has fielded 13 dalit faces, Nadda said.

When asked about not fielding Upadhyay, he said he will not contest the polls as the elections will be contested under his stewardship and he has a lot of responsibility on him.

PTI