BJP unfurls first list of candidates

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday evening released its first list of candidates for the upcoming MCD polls.

The saffron party, in its first list has released names of 160 candidates contesting for the Delhi Municipal Elections and the list of rest 112 candidates that will soon be released.

Later in the day, BJP revealed the name of the 161st candidate Anita Bharija, who will contest from Paharganj.

The party has also announced that it will be contesting the civic polls in an electoral alliance with Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Lok Janshakti Party. While BJP has given five seats to Akali Dal, it has offered the seat of Pahar Ganj to the Lok Janshakti Party candidate.

Five candidates have been announced by SAD, who will contest the Municipal elections under BJP's symbol. The candidates are Amarjeet Singh Pappu (Partap Nagar), Ravinder Singh Sonu (Tilak Nagar), Paramjeet Singh Rana (Rajendra Nagar), Manpreet Kaur (Kalkaji) and Iqbal Singh Raja (GTB Nagar).

After releasing the list, the party stated that the candidates will be fighting on the symbol of the Bharatiya Janta Party.

As Monday being the last day to file nomination paper, BJP President Amit Shah on Saturday held a series of meetings with parliamentarians at his residence. The party has decided to deploy at least five party volunteers per election booth to mobilise voters on the main day.

Giving a push to the election campaign, Bharatiya Janta Party also released its theme song 'BJP Dilli me'. The party has also aggressively pushed for mobilising the Poorvanchali voters in Delhi by making Manoj Tiwari its Delhi President. Poorvanchali Voters constitute a large chunk of voters in all three municipal corporations.

The Delhi unit of Congress, on Saturday night, had released its first list of 140 candidates for the upcoming civic polls in the capital. Names of the rest of the candidates for the three Delhi Municipal Corporations with a total of 272 members would be announced on Sunday, Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken tweeted.

"Winnability and opinion of grass root level party workers have dominated the candidate selection process," said Maken.

Twenty-one of the 140 candidates are sitting councillors, the Delhi Congress in a statement said, "We are giving tickets to seven sitting councillors in North, eight in South and six in the East Delhi municipal corporations. Out of the 140 candidates announced so far, 119 are first-time contenders."

Meanwhile, later in the night, the Congress released its second list of candidates.