Delhi Elections 2020: BJP Denies Tickets To 3-Time MLA Kulwant Rana, 25 Others

In its first list, the party announced 57 candidates while it denied tickets to 26 leaders, including former state vice president and three time MLA Kulwant Rana.

Delhi BJP State President Manoj Tiwari interacts with Union Minister Prakash Javadekar during the release of BJP's first list of 57 candidates for Delhi Assembly polls. (Image: PTI)

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday announced the first list of candidates for the Delhi Assembly elections to be held on February 8. In its first list, the party announced 57 candidates while it denied tickets to 26 leaders, including former state vice president and three time MLA Kulwant Rana. Rana became the youngest candidate to win the elections in 2003, while he retained his seat from Rithala constituency in 2008 and 2013 too. The BJP has still not announced its candidates for 13 seats, including New Delhi, Mehrauli and Sangam Vihar. The party has fielded Manish Chaudhary in place of Rana from Rithala. Sources said the party denied a ticket to Rana as he was involved in some controversies. Similarly, Rajni Abbi has been replaced by Surendra Singh Bittu in Timarpur, while Rajesh Yadav from Badli, Gugan Singh Ranga from Bawana, Prabhu Dayal from Sultanpur Majra, Surjeet from Mangolpuri and Nandkishor from Trinagar have not been given tickets for the upcoming Assembly polls. The party has also denied the ticket to Vivek Garg, who lost the elections in 2015 from the Model Town seat, and fielded former AAP Minister Kapil Mishra, who joined the BJP after quitting AAP. The party has also denied tickets to Praveen Jain from Sadar Bazar, Shyam Lal from Ballimaran, B.B. Tyagi from Laxmi Nagar, Jitendra Chaudhary from Gandhi Nagar, Sanjay Jain from Seelampur, Ajay Mahawat from Ghonda and Krishna Teerath from Patel Nagar. The party has also changed the candidates in Janakpuri, Uttam Nagar, Palam, Jangpura, Malviya Nagar, Ambedkar Nagar, Greater Kailash, Kondli and Patparganj.