With BJP yet to announce candidates for Assembly poll, posters of ticket hopefuls crop up across Delhi

With the Aam Aadmi Party having declared its candidates on all Assembly constituencies and the Congress on 21 of the 70 seats, all eyes are now on the BJP, which has not announced the name of a single nominee yet. Amid speculations over ticket distribution by Delhi’s main Opposition party, prospective candidates have started putting up posters of themselves hoping to draw the party leadership’s attention.

The posters, which have come up in areas including Lodhi Colony, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Kalkaji, Greater Kailash, and Bawana, bear photos of the ticket hopefuls against the backdrop of BJP’s national leaders — Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister Amit Shah, and party president J.P. Nadda — and leaders of its Delhi unit, such as election in-charge Baijayant Panda and city chief Virendra Sachdeva.

Commenting on the issue, a senior BJP leader said, “Neither does the party discourage this activity nor does it endorse it.”

While the posters may not reveal a lot about the ground reality, they hint at the factionalism within the party, given how different faces appear in the backdrop, often within the same constituency.

‘No delay’

Talking about the ticket distribution process, a sitting MP from Delhi who did not wish to be named said, “Our announcement in this regard has not been delayed. The party always announces candidates after the elections are formally notified.”

The Lok Sabha member added, “As a national party, we have a lengthy process to ascertain who gets the ticket. It starts with the local office-bearers passing their feedback to the State’s election committee, which then adds its own observations and forwards it to the parliamentary board, which takes the final call on ticket distribution.”

The party last held the reins of the national capital in 1998. It won three and eight seats in the Assembly elections of 2015 and 2020 respectively.

Published - December 18, 2024 01:03 am IST