Lok Sabha polls: Four sitting Delhi MPs dropped, BJP brings in fresh faces

Behind the choices

Done with the confines of what it views as the caste-community equation on each seat, the BJP, insiders said, had mainly stuck to the script – fielding as many fresh faces as possible keeping additional factors such as the representation of women, a mix of youth and experience and organisational performance in mind.

“Identifying the underlying caste-community dynamic across the population of a particular Parliamentary seat was the most significant factor to be kept in mind; New Delhi was supposed to have a Brahmin, the North East a Purvanchali, West Delhi a Jat, Chandni Chowk a baniya and South Delhi a Gurjar candidate,” a senior party leader said.

“Similarly, the reserved Northwest Delhi seat will see the party field an SC candidate and the East Delhi seat a Punjabi,” the leader also said adding that a decision on whom to finalise on these remaining two seats was likely to be taken at a meeting between the BJP’s national leadership and the Core Committee from the state on Sunday.

Sources said Delhi BJP general secretary Harsh Malhotra and Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar were the front-runners for a ticket from East Delhi; from Northwest Delhi, BJP national general secretary and ex-Rajya Sabha MP Dushyant Gautam and former MCD Mayor Yogendra Chandolia are the contenders.

Meanwhile, even as the party was unsure about the future of the sitting BJP MPs from Delhi who were dropped, sources said the BJP was staring at a crossroads in regards to them. “At least two of the MPs who have been dropped may be fielded from constituencies in states such as Haryana, Rajasthan or Uttar Pradesh; they are also likely to be fielded in the 2025 Delhi Assembly elections,” a party source said.

The elevation of Ramvir Bidhuri as the party’s Lok Sabha candidate, in the meantime, has triggered the search for a successor in the House where the BJP’s numbers will further dwindle from eight to seven after Bidhuri tenders his resignation to contest the polls, a source pointed out. “The party will need a replacement for Bidhuri till next year’s Delhi Assembly elections; Rohini legislator Vijender Gupta or Ghonda MLA Ajay Mahawar are likely to succeed him,” the source said.

A look at the candidates

1. South Delhi: Ramvir Singh Bidhuri

Replaces Ramesh Bidhuri

Ramvir Singh Bidhuri

Born and brought up in a family of farmers in South Delhi’s Tughlakabad village, Bidhuri, currently the BJP’s Badarpur MLA and Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, is a Political Science graduate from Delhi University’s Deshbandhu College. He joined the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in 1970 and was also an active worker of the Jan Sangh.

Elected as a Member of the first Delhi Legislative Assembly in 1993, Bidhuri has since been elected four times as an MLA; after his last election in 2020, he was chosen as the LoP as the senior-most among the BJP’s 8 legislators. He was appointed a Member of the BJP’s National Executive in 2013.

2. New Delhi: Bansuri Swaraj

Replaces: Meenakshi Lekhi

Bansuri Swaraj

Enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi in 2007, former BJP stalwart Sushma Swaraj’s daughter Bansuri has over 16 years of experience in the legal profession. After pursuing an undergraduate degree in English literature from the University of Warwick, she went on to pursue Law at the BPP Law School in London where she qualified as a Barrister. She also has a Masters of Studies from St Catherine’s College at the University of Oxford. She was appointed co-convenor of the Delhi BJP’s Legal Cell as part of an organisation rejig in March last year, then Secretary, while she simultaneously hit the ground in the New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency and also served as part of the Women20 special engagement group during the G20 Summit. Incidentally, she is contesting from the same seat her mum fought from.

3. Northeast Delhi: Manoj Tiwari

Manoj Tiwari

Born in Banaras, Tiwari is a popular Bhojpuri actor who has also featured in several reality TV shows. He obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Banaras Hindu University, and started his career as a singer before being propelled into stardom in the Bhojpuri film industry. First given a BJP ticket in 2014, Tiwari was appointed Delhi BJP president in 2016. A year later, he was at the helm of the party when it won the 2017 MCD elections despite significant anti-incumbency. He was at the helm of the BJP’s state unit when he was repeated as the party’s Lok Sabha candidate from Northeast Delhi for the second time.

4. West Delhi: Kamaljeet Sehrawat

Replaces Parvesh Verma

Kamaljeet Sehrawat

A law graduate and former PG teacher of commerce acknowledged for her “public connect”, Sehrawat has held various organisational positions in the Delhi BJP as well as the MCD; she was the Mayor of the erstwhile South MCD from 2017 to 2018. Though she contested the 2008 Delhi Assembly elections unsuccessfully, she has risen in the organisational ranks of the party’s state unit over several decades — she has served as district vice-president from Najafgarh to Secretary, president of the BJP Mahila Morcha, and Delhi BJP vice-president. She currently serves as the only woman general secretary of the three such posts in the Delhi BJP.

5. Chandni Chowk: Praveen Khandelwal

Replaces: Dr Harsh Vardhan

Praveen Khandelwal

A North Delhi-based businessman with a law degree from Delhi University, Khandelwal founded and serves as Secretary General of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) which works for the welfare of the business and trader community. He has served on the GST Panel, raised the issue of foreign-based e-commerce companies edging out local businesses in the Indian market and is currently seeking to insulate the traders’ community from possible issues related to e-wallet companies. He is a former treasurer of the BJP’s Delhi unit.