The Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president, Adesh Gupta, and its leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga have conveyed their unwillingness to contest the bypoll from West Delhi’s Rajinder Nagar to national leaders. The seat fell vacant when AAP MLA Raghav Chadha resigned as he was promoted to Rajya Sabha by his party. Meantime, Delhi BJP has accelerated the process of candidate selection for the seat that has a large chunk of slum-dwelling voters.
The Election Commission on Wednesday announced bypoll to the Rajinder Nagar seat, along with six other Assembly constituencies and three Lok Sabha seats in different states, on June 23.“We are working on ground and process of candidate selection has also been fast-tracked. Delhi BJP in-charge Baijayant Panda and other leaders held a meeting in constituency on Thursday, in which the preparations for the bypolls were discussed," said a leader of the saffron party.
He said 12 of winning candidates in last 14 Assembly polls held in Rajinder Nagar were Punjabis. The Punjabi voters account for 40 per cent of total votes in constituency, he said.
The constituency has a diverse mix of voters, including dominant Punjabis and Scheduled Caste voters. There are 17 large slum settlements in constituency, including Inderpuri and Pandav Nagar, BJP leaders said.
The last Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate to win the seat was RP Singh in 2013. The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is likely to field senior leader Durgesh Pathak from the constituency.
"A victory in the Rajinder Nagar bypoll will help the party dent the AAP's dominance in Delhi's politics, so winnability will be the biggest factor in candidate selection," a Delhi BJP leader said.The party has already started working on the ground with a series of meetings at ward and booth levels. A team headed by MLA Ajay Mahawar as the in-charge has been formed to coordinate the saffron party's reach-out programmes.
The BJP had started its preparations for the bypoll with its national president JP Nadda heading a roadshow in Rajinder Nagar on the occasion of the party's foundation day on April 6. The results of bypoll will be announced on June 26.
