BJP declares 57 candidates for Delhi polls, Vijender Gupta to contest from Rohini

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday declared 57 candidates for the next month's Delhi assembly elections fielding party leaders Vijender Gupta from Rohini, RP Singh from Rajinder Nagar and Brahm Singh Tanwar from Chhatarpur.

The party did not declare its candidate for New Delhi seat from where Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is likely to contest. The list has names of several former MLAs.

Former AAP leader Kapil Mishra, who joined BJP last year, will contest from Model Town in north Delhi.

The names were declared at a press conference here by Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari, who said that it was a list of winners and expressed confidence about the party forming the government in Delhi.

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar was among those present at the presser.

Tiwari said remaining candidates will be declared soon.

The party candidates include Jai Prakash from Sadar Bazar, Suman Kumar Gupta from Chandani Chowk, Ashish Sood from Janakpuri, Sanjay Singh from Vikaspuri, Vijay Pandit from Palam, IS Bakhsi from Jangpura, Anil Sharma from RK Puram, Arvind Kumar from Deoli, Shikha Rai from Tughlakabad, Vijay Bhagat from Rithala, Anil Jha from Kirari and Rekha Gupta from Shalimar Bagh.

The voting for 70-member Delhi assembly will be held on February 8. The counting of votes will take place on February 11.

The BJP faces a tough battle in Delhi where it has been out of power for over two decades. The party could win only three seats in the last assembly polls with the ruling AAP scoring a landslide victory with 67 seats.