Manoj Tiwari, Bansuri Swaraj, Ramvir Bidhuri — Top 5 Lok Sabha Candidates From Political Battleground Of Delhi
In Delhi, the primary contest was between the BJP, which won all seven seats in the 2014 and 2019 elections, and the AAP-Congress alliance. Here are the top five candidates from the national capital.
As the Lok Sabha elections 2024 concluded at 6 PM on June 1 after seven phases of polling across the country, all eyes turned to June 4, the counting day. In Delhi, the primary contest was between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which won all seven seats in the 2014 and 2019 elections, and the AAP-Congress alliance. The AAP and Congress alliance divided the seats, with AAP contesting four and Congress three. Here are the top five candidates from the national capital:
Manoj Tiwari:
BJP's sitting MP Manoj Tiwari contested from the North East Delhi parliamentary seat against Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar. The BJP retained Tiwari from the seat, though it dropped all six other sitting MPs from the national capital in this election.
Traditionally aligned with the Punjabi-Baniya community in Delhi, the BJP shifted its preference towards migrant voters after choosing Tiwari as the Delhi BJP president. When the party chose Tiwari to fight the election from the North East Delhi seat in 2014, the migrant vote was one of the why he won the seat with 45.38 per cent of votes, defeating AAP's Anand Kumar. In the 2019 general elections, Tiwari defeated former Chief Minister and Congres leader Sheila Dikshit by 3,40,000 votes.
This time too, the BJP retained Tiwari, while dropping six other MPs from the capital, including Harsh Vardhan, Meenakshi Lekhi, Ramesh Bidhuri, and Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma. Meanwhile, the Congress decided to test the waters by pitting Kanhaiya, who also hails from Bihar, against Bhojpuri actor-turned-politician and sitting MP.
Kanhahiya Kumar:
The Congress announced the entry of Kanhaiya Kumar, who lost the 2019 election against BJP's Giriraj Singh on a CPI ticket in Begusarai, from the North East Delhi seat. Kanhaiya, who switched to Congress in 2021, was not only challenging the BJP in the Delhi seat but was also part of the party's expansion plan in Delhi. The choice of North East Delhi for the former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student was well thought of for one reason: the significant Poorvanchali migrants.
Bansuri Swaraj:
A lawyer by profession, Bansuri Swaraj made her electoral debut from the New Delhi parliamentary constituency. Daughter of former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Bansuri took on AAP's heavyweight leader and three-time legislator Somnath Bharti from the seat. Since last year, she emerged as the face of the BJP in Delhi and was also made the co-convenor of the party's legal cell in Delhi.
Born on January 3, 1984, Bansuri Swaraj is a Supreme Court advocate and has been in the legal profession for 15 years. She is the BJP's youngest candidate for the 2024 Lok Sabha election, replacing Union Minister Meenakshi Lekhi in the high-profile seat. The BJP leader was accused by AAP of defending "anti-national forces in court," claiming she defended the BJP-led Centre in the Supreme Court when violence rocked Manipur and two women were stripped and paraded.
Somnath Bharti:
AAP leader Somnath Bharti, who recently rejected the exit poll results of the Lok Sabha elections 2024, saying that he would "shave his head" if Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister once again, has been nothing less than a lucky charm for AAP. Bharti won back-to-back elections from the Malaviya Nagar constituency in South Delhi.
After winning the 2013 Delhi Assembly election, Bharti was appointed the minister for law, administrative reforms and art & culture in the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government that lasted only 49 days. When an Assembly election was next held in 2015, Bharti won from the Malviya Nagar seat with a bigger mandate than in 2013, while his party swept the election, winning 67 of the 70 seats.
Despite his electoral success, Bharti's run as a lawmaker was not without controversies. From allegations of domestic abuse to vigilantism, Bharti was at centre of many rows.
Ramvir Singh Bidhuri:
Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, the BJP candidate from South Delhi in the Lok Sabha 2024 poll, recently expressed confidence in the party's victory in all seven seats of the Capital. "This is a clear trend of tremendous support for the BJP among the voters of South Delhi," he told The Hindu.
Bidhuri has a decade-long connection with his constituency. He grew up in the village of Tughlakabad and had contested in the first Delhi Legislative Assembly election in 1993. The 71-year-old politician began his journey by joining Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad as a student activist at Delhi University. One of the most senior politicians of the BJP, Bidhuri shared his career in politics with former Delhi Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana and other key leaders like Sushma Swaraj and Sahib Singh Verma.
Bidhuri was elected on a Janata Dal ticket from Badarpur in 1993. Since then, he served as the MLA for Badarpur four times. Currently, he is the Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly.
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