The Delhi BJP is intensifying its hunt for candidates and will not field all of the current MPs in the LS election

The BJP has stepped up the selection of candidates for the Lok Sabha. On Monday, observers from the party’s Delhi branch gathered the names of candidates who are likely to get tickets for seven city parliamentary seats at the district level.

There is increasing talk that the BJP may not run all of its sitting Members in the April–May Lok Sabha elections in the aftermath of the AAP and Congress coalition in Delhi.

Furthermore, according to a senior Delhi BJP official, the BJP has been doing three surveys and analyzing the performance of its seven MPs in the lead-up to the candidate selection process.

“There are rumors that this time, at least half of the current MPs will lose their seats. Buzz is also quite strong that everyone will be removed, but because the national leadership makes these decisions, it’s too soon to make any statements,” he said.

The BJP retained its current Members of Parliament in five of the seven seats in 2019. In the seats of East Delhi and North West Delhi, new contenders Gautam Gambhir and Hans Raj Hans ran.

In 2019, all of the BJP’s candidates won with enormous margins and garnered a higher number of votes than the independent candidates of the Congress and AAP.

“Elections are never taken lightly by us. However, we are unfazed by the AAP and Congress’s coalition in Delhi and are working tirelessly to win all seven seats for a third consecutive term,” said a top Delhi BJP leader.

Teams of two senior leaders from the state unit performed a feedback collecting exercise with district level leaders, including the president, general secretary, sitting councilors, candidates from past Assembly elections, state functionaries, district incharges, and co-incharges.

“Each community leader gave three plausible names. The list of potential candidates for the seven Lok Sabha seats is about five to seven names. The president of the Delhi BJP, Virendra Sachdeva, has received the reports from the observers,” said party officials.

The party leaders expressed great desire to fight the Lok Sabha elections, according to the feedback process, they claimed.

“Apart from sitting MPs, the names of many state office bearers were suggested by the leaders at the district level,” they said.

They also said that the screening procedure for the Delhi aspirants would be completed in the next four to six weeks and that the tickets might be announced in the middle of April.