Delhi Assembly Elections: BJP Releases Second Candidate List, Fields Sunil Yadav Against Kejriwal

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday released the second list of candidates for the Delhi Assembly polls. The party has fielded state Yuva Morcha President Sunil Yadav from the New Delhi constituency against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Candidates were announced after BJP’s traditional ally Akali Dal announced not to contest the elections over the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act or CAA following which the BJP decided to join hands with Nitish Kumar's JD-U and Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP for the February 8 polls in the national capital. The BJP has allotted two seats to Bihar CM Nitish Kumar's party while Paswan's party will get one seat.

According to the list of 10 candidates that came hours before the filing of nomination closes on Tuesday, Delhi BJP spokesperson Tajinderpal Singh Bagga has been fielded from Hari Nagar and party’s Purvanchal Morcha president Manish Singh would contest from the Delhi Cantonment constituency.

The BJP announced its candidates on all four seats that traditionally went to its ally SAD in the previous Assembly elections in Delhi.

Dharamvir Singh has been fielded from Kalkaji, former East Delhi deputy mayor Sanjay Goyal from Shahdara and Ramesh Khanma from Rajouri Garden.

The list also includes the names of BJP candidates Sumanlata Shokeen, who would content from Nangloi Jat, Ravindra Chaudhary from Kasturba Nagar, Kusum Khatri from Mehrauli and Anil Goyal from Krishna Nagar.

The BJP has left three seats for its alliance partners JD(U) and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).

The JD(U) will contest from Burari and Sangam Vihar constituencies while LJP will fight from the Seemapuri seat.

Last week, the BJP released its first list of 57 candidates The list, which was released by Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari, included sitting MLA Vijender Gupta, former AAP MLA Kapil Mishra and has 11 SC and four woman candidates. Gupta will again fight from his Rohini seat, while Mishra will contest from Model Town.

The ruling AAP has announced all its 70 candidates. The BJP had won only three assembly seats in the previous assembly elections, while the AAP had won 67. The elections will have triangular contest with the Congress being the third major player as political watchers believe that the BJP and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP are likely to be the main rivals in most of the seats. The voting to elect the new Delhi assembly will take place on February 8 while the results will be out on February 11.