Delhi: Even as the Delhi BJP finally announced the names of 62 candidates for the upcoming assembly elections after eight hours of intense deliberations on Wednesday, many who couldn't manage to get a ticket were left sulking after the names were announced.
The BJP may have decided to field former state unit President Vijendra Gupta against Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit from New Delhi constituency but Gupta had been aggressively lobbying to get a ticket from Rohini, Shalimar Bagh or Shakur Basti in North Delhi, seen as safe seats. But as all these seats went to sitting MLA's (Rohini - Jai Bhagvan, Shailmar Bagh - Ravinder Nath Bansal, Shakur Basti - Shyam Lal Garg) Gupta was offered New Delhi's seat.
Gupta now says that "I accept the party's decision, there's no infighting. I am confident of defeating Sheila Dikshit and will start working in the constituency", even calling Arvind Kejriwal "a non-serious candidate".
Many prominent faces like Vijay Jolly who was hoping for a ticket from GK lost out to VK Malhotra's son Ajay Malhotra, Poorvanchali leader Poonam Azad and Tv actress Vani Tripathi also lost out to Krishan Gehlot who lost by a slim margin of 900 votes in Vikaspuri and sitting MLA Manoj Kumar got the ticket from Mundka which North Delhi Mayor Azad Singh was hoping for. Vijay Jolly's wife name was also not there in the first list.
Around 12 candidates who lost in 2008 like OP Sharma from Vishwas Nagar, Nakul Bhardvaj from Patpatganj, Dushyant Gautam from Kondli, Pawan Sharma from Uttam Nagar, Jai Prakash from Sadar Bazar, Moti Lal Sodhi from Balimaran have been given a second chance, many ticket hopefuls who lost out to them are not happy with the decision, according to a party leader.
The congress which was ridiculed by Modi recently for pandering to its 'Yuvraj' attacked the BJP for giving tickets to VK Malhotra's son Ajay Malhotra from GK, Saheb Singh Verma's son and OP Babbar's son Rajesh Babbar from Tilak Nagar. "The BJP accuses us of dynasty politics & they've given tickets to the sons of their leaders, this exposes their hypocrisy". Also the displeasure of Madan Lal Khurana's son who couldn't manage to get a ticket from Moti Nagar is also known to all.
The BJP has given 7 tickets to Punjabi leader, nine to Baniya, four to women and just one to a Muslim leader. Though every leader in the party officially said that they accept the decision, many ticket aspirants were disappointed. Whether the party's decision to repeat almost all it's ex MLA's will reap electoral benefits or not, we'll just have to wait and watch.
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