NEW DELHI: A disconnect with constituents and strong anti-incumbency sentiments emerging in surveys carried out by the party have reportedly worked against four sitting BJP MPs in Delhi. The names of Ramesh Bidhuri (South Delhi), Meenakshi Lekhi (New Delhi), Parvesh Sahib Singh (West Delhi) and Dr Harsh Vardhan (Chandni Chowk) were missing from the first list of 195 candidates for the 2024 Lok Sabha election released on Saturday.
According to party insiders, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was also unhappy with a couple of MPs in Delhi and flagged concerns over their functioning. A senior Delhi BJP leader added that not just the Sangh, a section of state leaders and workers were upset too with their representatives because of inaccessibility and their anger was palpable in feedback.
“The decision to deny tickets to incumbent MPs has not come as a complete surprise to many. In feedback collected by the party through various channels, resentment against was noticeable. A couple of them have been inaccessible throughout,” said a former officer bearer of Delhi BJP.
Delhi has seven Lok Sabha seats. The BJP announced candidates for five Lok Sabha seats in the national capital and only Bhojpuri actor turned politician Manoj Tiwari has been retained from northeast Delhi seat.
According to senior BJP functionaries in Delhi, the age factor has played a role in ticket denial to Vardhan but added that Covid mismanagement during the second wave of pandemic might be another reason. “Maybe, the top leadership has not forgiven him. He has been blamed for the scarcity of oxygen cylinders and hospital beds,” said a Delhi BJP leader.
Leader of opposition in the Delhi assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri has been fielded in place of Ramesh and former south Delhi mayor Kamaljeet Sehrawat has replaced Parvesh. Delhi BJP leaders said that besides negative feedback from party cadre, hate comments against a minority made by them in the past might have cost their tickets.
Ramesh Bidhuri had hurled racial slurs at BSP MP Kunwar Danish Ali during a discussion in the Parliament in September. An office bearer of the Delhi BJP said that Ramesh and Parvesh might be given important responsibilities to take on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the assembly elections in 2025.
Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, will contest from New Delhi, which is presently represented by the minister of state for external affairs Meenakshi Lekhi.
Reacting to the development, senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi minister Atishi said that the BJP gives tickets to incompetent individuals who don't work for five years.
When the public gets angry, the BJP is compelled to change tickets, she added.
“BJP’s seven MPs have not done any work for the public in the last five years,” she said.
However, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said that the BJP is not a bunch of individuals but an ideological institution committed to nationalism and service of the people where the individual fighting election is just a name, adding that it is their workers who contest the polls.
“Face of an individual may change but commitment to serve is equal in each individual worker,” he said.
The party is yet to announce candidates for two seats -- East Delhi and Northwest Delhi. Hours before the list of party contenders was released, former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir requested BJP president Jagat Prakash Nadda to relieve him of his political duties. Punjabi Sufi singer Hans Raj Hans represents Northwest Delhi.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva and general secretary Harshdeep Malhotra are frontrunners from East Delhi, while BJP national general secretary Dushyant Gautam, former chairman of standing committee of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) Yogender Chandolia and former mayor of south Delhi Sunita Kangra may be considered for Northwest Delhi.
