LS polls: BJP names 5 candidates for Delhi; Sushma's daughter Bansuri to contest from New Delhi seat

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday released its first list of five candidates for the seven parliamentary seats of the national capital for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, fielding former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's daughter Bansuri from New Delhi.

The party has changed its candidates for most of the seats in the national capital.

Currently, the BJP holds all seven Delhi Lok Sabha seats.

The party has fielded Bhojpuri superstar and current party MP Manoj Tiwari from North-East Delhi, Kamaljeet Sehrawat from West Delhi, Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri from South Delhi and Praveen Khandelwal from Chandni Chowk.

Of the five named candidates, only Manoj Tiwari has managed to get a renomination.

Tiwari is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and has been a Member of Parliament (MP) from the North East Delhi constituency since 2014. In 2014, Tiwari joined the BJP and contested the Lok Sabha elections from the North East Delhi constituency. He won the election by a margin of over 3 lakh votes. He was re-elected in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The party is yet to announce candidates for the North Delhi and East Delhi seats.

Bansuri Swaraj, while speaking to ANI, expressed her gratitude to the BJP's top brass, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"I feel grateful. I express gratitude towards PM Modi, HM Amit Shah ji, JP Nadda ji and every BJP worker for giving me this opportunity. With the resolution of 'ab ki baar 400 paar', every BJP worker will work to make Narendra Modi the 'PradhanSewak' for the third time," Bansuri said.

Delhi has seven Lok Sabha seats, all of which are currently held by the BJP.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress, which will fight in alliance, are the two other key political parties in Delhi in the fray.

The AAP and the Congress have announced that they will contest the 2024 Lok Sabha election together for all seven seats.

As part of the agreement reached between the ruling party in Delhi and the grand old party, Congress will contest 3 of the 7 Lok Sabha seats in the national capital, while the AAP will field candidates in the remaining 4 constituencies.

The Congress will contest the Chandni Chowk, North East and North West seats in the Lok Sabha elections, while the AAP will contest New Delhi, West Delhi, South Delhi and East Delhi.

The BJP on Saturday unveiled its first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, encompassing 16 States and 2 Union Territories, with a total of 195 nominees.

The first list of candidates include 34 ministers from both the Union and state levels, along with the name of the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. The announced names included those for 51 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 20 in West Bengal and five in Delhi. 28 women, and 47 young leaders in BJP's first list of Lok Sabha candidates for 16 States and Union Territories.

Union ministers whose names have been announced by the BJP in the first list of candidates include Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Bhupender Yadav, Mansukh Mandaviya, Sarbananda Sonowal, Kiren Rijiju, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Arjun Ram Meghwal, G Kishan Reddy, Arjun Munda and Smriti Irani.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will fight from Varanasi, Home Minister Amit Shah from Gandhinagar, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya from Porbandar, Sarbananda Sonowal from Dibrugarh