Fresh faces dominate list as BJP declares its candidates

A day ahead of the last date for filing nominations for the municipal elections in the Capital, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released the list of its candidates who will be contesting the polls.

The party, which had earlier announced that the sitting 154 councillors in the three municipal corporations will not get tickets, finally came up with the names on Sunday, with most of them being fresh faces. As many as 160 names were announced till late in the evening, with more names expected by night.

The names were declared after scrutinising 33,000 potential candidates from 272 wards across 68 Assembly constituencies. State party President Manoj Tiwari said: "We are fighting the elections along with the Akali Dal and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). The two parties will fight MCD polls on the BJP symbol."

Heavy security arrangement could be seen outside the state party office, with leaders waiting for the declaration with anticipation. Lately, senior party leaders had been facing criticism for the decision to not give tickets to the sitting councillors. Party sources said Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the decision after the colossal defeat of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and BJP alliance in Punjab.

Congress won 77 of the 117 seats in Punjab. AAP came in second with 20 seats, followed by the SAD-BJP alliance, which won just 18 seats. The SAD-BJP combine, which has been ruling the state for 10 years, struggled against multiple factors, including anti-incumbency.

When the sitting councillors knocked on the doors of senior leaders, they were told that their grievances will be considered. But in another decision, the party barred all district presidents from contesting polls. Another party diktat stated that candidates could not swap their wards. "They need to be the resident of the same ward from where they are demanding tickets," a senior BJP leader stated.

With these new, strict guidelines, the party has decided to fight the election on the development agenda, exposing its rival Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) "bad governance" in Delhi. With Monday being the last day to file nomination papers, BJP President Amit Shah held a series of meetings with parliamentarians at his residence on Saturday. Some reports claimed that Delhi BJP Chief Manoj Tiwari, RSS and BJP Coordinator Mukesh Puniyani, Organisational Secretary Siddharthan, and Delhi BJP in-charge Shyam Jaju were also present in the meeting.

Shah made it clear to the state leaders that infighting within the party would not be allowed and issued directions that the sitting councillors should help the new faces in their wards.

The poll bugle was blown when Shah addressed a Panch Parmeshwar Sammelan in Ram Leela Ground. The party has decided to deploy at least five party volunteers per election booth to mobilise voters on the voting day.

Further, the party has prepared a list of star campaigners, including Union Ministers, Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states, senior party leaders, and Delhi BJP Chief Tiwari will personally request them to campaign in the run-up to the polls. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will be one of the star campaigners.

Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya will also campaign for the saffron party. Names of Union Ministers, including those of Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, M Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Harsh Vardhan, and Vijay Goel, also figure in BJP's list of star campaigners for the MCD polls. Actor-turned-politician and saffron party's MP from Mathura, Hema Malini, will also campaign in the election.

Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled Maharashtra, Assam, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh will also take part in the campaigning. Tiwari and another Bhojpuri filmstar, Ravi Kishan, also feature among the party's star campaigner list.