From Manoj Tiwari to Bansuri Swaraj, here are the front-runners for BJP’s Delhi Lok Sabha seats

Sources said the panel included incumbent MP Manoj Tiwari, whose name was understood to be “mostly final”, to be fielded from the North East Delhi Parliamentary constituency yet again and Ghonda Assembly BJP MLA Ajay Mahawar.

From the New Delhi seat, sources said the panel included Bansuri Swaraj, Anil Sharma and Satish Upadhyay; for the North West Delhi seat, the probables included Yogender Chandolia and Dushyant Gautam.

The panel, according to sources, also included sitting MP Parvesh Verma, Kuljeet Chahal and Kamaljeet Sehrawat from West Delhi and Delhi BJP president Virender Sachdeva as well as general secretary Harsh Malhotra from the East Delhi seat.

For Chandni Chowk, the panel, sources said, included Vishnu Mittal, who was understood to be the frontrunner for a ticket from this Parliamentary constituency, in addition to Rekha Gupta and Praveen Khandelwal.

The panel for South Delhi, in addition to incumbent Ramesh Bidhuri, also included Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly and Badarpur MLA Ramvir Singh Bidhuri.

The panel was finalised after deliberations over around 28 probable candidates between the BJP’s senior leadership from Delhi and BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah a day earlier, sources said.

“In practice, around 80 per cent of the names which are finally chosen for tickets are usually from such a panel which is presented before the CEC for consideration,” a source said. “However, the CEC has been known to spring surprises in the past and may this time as well especially on seats such as New Delhi and South Delhi from where several Union ministers are hoping to try their luck in the capital,” the source added.