Delhi Elections Date Soon? Election Commission Calls Prep Meet

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has called for a preparatory meeting this week over next year’s Delhi elections. The dates for the much-anticipated polls will be announced shortly after this meeting, sources said. 

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has released the names of its candidates for all 70 seats in the Delhi Assembly. Party chief Arvind Kejriwal has confirmed that he will contest from his New Delhi seat in the upcoming polls while Chief Minister Atishi will fight from her Kalkaji constituency.  

The Congress has fielded Sandeep Dikshit, son of the late three-time Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, while BJP may put forward Parvesh Verma, son of the late Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma for the polls. The BJP candidates’ list for the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls, expected around last week of this month, is likely to have a significant number of fresh faces, party leaders said on Monday.

Ahead of elections to the 70-member Delhi Assembly, due in February, the BJP has launched a massive outreach campaign to get a foothold in the city’s slums, considered to be strongholds of the ruling AAP.

The party received over 2,000 applications from the workers and leaders from all the 70 constituencies for the ticket to contest the elections, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said.

“A significant enthusiasm for the BJP is being witnessed among various sections of the society in Delhi as the city gears up for the assembly elections,” he said in a statement.

The BJP leaders said the process for candidates’ selection was in an advanced stage and three probables on each constituency were already shortlisted.

The BJP out of power in Delhi since 1998 is making all efforts to upstage the ruling AAP that has dominated the assembly elections since 2015. The AAP romped home winning 67 and 62 seats, respectively in the last two assembly polls in 2015 and 2020.