BJP may ask three of its former MPs to contest Delhi Assembly polls

“Three of the seven former BJP MPs from Delhi — Gautam Gambhir, Hansraj Hans, and Dr Harsh Vardhan —- are unlikely to be considered as candidates for the 2025 Delhi Assembly elections. The remaining three, who were dropped, have been asked to begin work at the Assembly level,” a BJP leader said.

With the exception of Manoj Tiwari, who was fielded and got elected again from North East Delhi, the BJP had replaced six of its seven Delhi MPs in the Lok Sabha elections this year.

While Dr Harsh Vardhan was replaced by Praveen Khandelwal in the Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha constituency, Bansuri Swaraj replaced Lekhi in New Delhi, Kamaljeet Sehrawat replaced Parvesh Verma in West Delhi, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri was picked instead of Ramesh Bidhuri in South Delhi, and Gautam Gambhir was replaced by Harsh Malhotra in East Delhi.

“Delhi’s current BJP MPs — six out of whom are first-timers — will also play a decisive role in candidate selection apart from the state leadership. That the incumbent MPs have to lead the party’s campaign in the Capital has been made clear not only by the senior leadership, including national president Jagat Prakash Nadda and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, but by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself,” another BJP leader said.

According to sources, while Bidhuri could be fielded from the Tughlakabad or the Badarpur Assembly seat, Lekhi is likely to be considered from the Kasturba Nagar or Greater Kailash, and Verma from the Matiala, Najafgarh or Mehrauli constituencies. Both Bidhuri and Verma have prior experience as MLAs. While Bidhuri was elected to the Delhi Assembly for three consecutive terms from 2003 to 2013 from Tughlakabad, Verma was elected from Mehrauli in 2013 before being fielded from West Delhi for the first time in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

“The final decision on the tickets will be taken by the national leadership but a lot will depend on the next national BJP president’s assessment of the winnability of the proposed candidates,” the leader said.

“While the General Secretaries (Organisation) of the party’s various state units are scheduled to meet over the coming days, another meeting on the nationwide membership drive will be held after that,” the leader added.