The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already stepped up its preparations for the Delhi Assembly elections to be held next year. According to sources, the party may give three of its six former MPs from Delhi another chance to prove their ability. Not only this, the party is also expected to hold several important meetings in the coming days and make organizational changes at the national level. The BJP had replaced six of its seven MPs from Delhi in the Lok Sabha elections this year.
In the Lok Sabha elections 2024, the BJP had cut the tickets of 6 out of its 7 MPs – Meenakshi Lekhi, Gautam Gambhir, Ramesh Bidhuri, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Pravesh Verma and Hansraj Hans, except Manoj Tiwari.
According to a report by The Indian Express, sources said the BJP high command has asked three of its former MPs – Meenakshi Lekhi, Parvesh Verma and Ramesh Bidhuri – to prepare the ground for their possible candidature in next year’s Delhi Assembly elections.
Two MPs have been MLAs before
According to sources, Meenakshi Lekhi can be fielded from Kasturba Nagar or Greater Kailash assembly seat. Ramesh Bidhuri can be fielded from Tughlakabad or Badarpur and Pravesh Verma from Matiala, Najafgarh or Mehrauli constituencies. Let us tell you that both Ramesh Bidhuri and Pravesh Verma have previous experience of working as MLAs. Bidhuri was elected to the Delhi Assembly from Tughlakabad for three consecutive times from 2003 to 2013, while Pravesh Verma was elected from Mehrauli in 2013. Earlier, he was fielded from West Delhi for the first time in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
A BJP leader said that the names of 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 Delhi Assembly Elections 2025. At the same time, three other former MPs Meenakshi Lekhi, Pravesh Verma and Ramesh Bidhuri have been asked to start work at the assembly level.
Manoj Tiwari, who hoisted the flag of BJP’s victory for the third time from North-East Delhi, is the only MP who was fielded by the party for the third time and won the election.
Praveen Khandelwal was chosen in place of Dr. Harsh Vardhan in Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha constituency, Bansuri Swaraj in place of Meenakshi Lekhi in New Delhi, Kamaljit Sehrawat in place of Parvesh Verma in West Delhi, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri in place of Ramesh Bidhuri in South Delhi and Harsh Malhotra in place of Gautam Gambhir in East Delhi.