New Delhi [India], January 4 : BJP on Saturday released its first list of 29 candidates for Delhi assembly elections setting the stage for multi-cornered contests on several seats in the capital with AAP leaders former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Chief Minister Atishi in triangular contests on their seats.
The BJP fielded some of its heavyweights in the fray. Dushyant Gautam will contest from Karol Bagh, Manjinder Singh Sirsa from Rajouri Garden, and former Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely from Gandhi Nagar.
Parvesh Verma, a former MP and son of former Delhi CM Sahib Singh Verma, will give fight to Kejriwal on the New Delhi seat. Congress has fielded Sandeep Dikshit, son of former Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit from the seat.
BJP fielded its former MP Ramesh Bidhuri from Kalkaji against Atishi. Congress has fielded former MLA Alka Lamba from the seat.
Kartar Singh Tanwar, who also joined BJP from AAP has been fielded from his Chhatarpur constituency. BJP has fielded Tarwinder Singh Marwah from Jangpura against AAP's Manish Sisodia. Rajkumar Chauhan has been given a ticket from Mangolpuri and former AAP minister Kailash Gahlot will fight from Bijwasan.
Former AAP ministers Raaj Kumar Anand and Kailash Gahlot, who joined the BJP last year, also got tickets.
Kailash Gahlot alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party has forgotten the common man and has become 'Khas Aadmi Party'.
He also thanked the BJP's top leadership for giving him the opportunity to contest the Delhi assembly elections.
"I thank the central leadership, PM Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Delhi BJP President for giving me the opportunity to contest elections from here... The people of Delhi have been cheated a lot. Aam Aadmi Party which used to say that we will work for the common man, has forgotten the common man and has become 'Khas Aadmi Party'," Gahlot said.
Parvesh Verma accused Kejriwal of neglecting development in the New Delhi assembly constituency and alleged that the AAP national convenor did not provide even a single house in 11 years and has only "cheated" the people of Delhi after taking their votes.
Speaking to ANI, Verma exuded confidence that he would defeat Kejriwal.
"The people of Delhi are going to write history in the elections. When our BJP government is formed, the flow of development will start in Delhi, there will be no politics of allegations and counter-allegations, there will be only development... I thought a lot of work would be done in the New Delhi assembly constituency but not a single work was done. Doing all the work is my priority," he said.
Bharatiya Janata Party's Mehrauli assembly seat candidate, Gajendra Yadav thanked the party leadership and said that the BJP is the only party that gives tickets to common party workers.
"BJP is the only party who chooses its common party workers and gives them tickets. I thank the party leadership for this... AAP has been into severe corruption in Mehrauli. There are damaged roads and drains everywhere... The people are not able to bear the situation anymore. BJP will win from there," Yadav told ANI.
Aam Aadmi Party has fielded Mahender Chaudhary from the Mehrauli assembly seat.
Arvinder Singh Lovely expressed gratitude to the BJP's top leadership and said that he has "family relations" with the people of Gandhi Nagar."
"I thank the party leadership for having faith in me... Gandhi Nagar is not new to me. I have family relations with the people of Gandhi Nagar. There is no such family whom I don't know or who does not know me personally... The mechanism of administration in Delhi has collapsed in the last 10 years... The problems of Gandhi Nagar are as same as those of the rest of Delhi. These problems will be solved only when the corrupt government is removed from power," Lovely told ANI on Saturday.
Hours after the Bharatiya Janata Party released its first list of candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in Delhi, Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said that the people of the national capital have made up their mind to elect the three-time Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
"BJP has no CM face...They have just released the list of 29 candidates...The Delhi BJP Chief has also refused to contest the state elections as he is aware of the ground reality. The people of Delhi has made up its mind to elect Arvind Kejriwal," Kakkar said.
Launching a scathing attack on both Aam Aadmi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, Alka Lamba asserted that her party is the only alternative to tackle issues like pollution, crime, and governance in the national capital.
Speaking to ANI, Lamba, who has been fielded against CM Atishi from Kalkaji, claimed that her party has the roadmap to fight pollution in Delhi.
"In Karnataka, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh, we are giving benefits to the people of the state. We are giving free bus rides to women, giving Rs 2000-2500 to women. It is going into their bank accounts. Those women will come with their bank account passbooks and show that the Telangana and Karnataka governments are providing them benefits," she said.
The Congress candidate further said that the elections in 2015 and 2020 were like a 'wave' and the number of seats AAP got in Delhi, no one could ever get.
BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi accused the ruling Aam Admi Party of misusing the taxpayer's money.
"Delhi government's dependence on money granted by the central government has increased three times in comparison to 2014-15... They (AAP) have pushed Delhi people into a disastrous situation through their mismanagement and by misusing the taxpayers' money," he alleged at a press conference.
".Wherever they (are in power), they create a situation of Aapda (disaster). You can go and check in Punjab, a full-fledged state. Where is the investment in Punjab standing as of now compared to the last three years?" he asked.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone for several key development projects worth more than Rs 12,200 crores in the national capital on Sunday.
These projects are set to boost regional connectivity and ease of travel for millions of people, marking a significant milestone in the city's infrastructure development, a release said.
Date for assembly polls in Delhi is expected to be announced in a few days.