As many as 162 candidates will contest elections in the national Capital with the maximum candidates fighting the Lok Sabha 2024 elections from the North East Delhi constituency. A total of 28 candidates will be seen in the battle to secure the North east Delhi seat, as per the data revealed by the Delhi Chief Election Commissioner's office on Thursday.
In the reserved seat of North West Delhi 26 candidates will enter into the election battle followed by 25 candidates in Chandni Chowk, 24 candidates from West Delhi, 22 from South Delhi, 20 from North Delhi and 17 from New Delhi. Anticipation is building up among the 162 candidates vying for becoming MP from their chosen seats.
Under a seat-sharing arrangement between the Congress and the AAP, the former has fielded candidates from three Lok Sabha seats in Delhi while the latter is contesting from the remaining four. While the Congress is contesting from Chandni Chowk, North east Delhi and North west Delhi, AAP has fielded from East Delhi, West Delhi, South Delhi and New Delhi.
The New Delhi seat will witness a contest between two lawyers- Former Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj's daughter Bansuri Swaraj, who also happens to be BJP's youngest candidate in the fray, and three times MLA from Malviya Nagar Somnath Bharti. Meanwhile, former Delhi Minister Raaj Kumar Anand, who quit from both the Delhi cabinet and the AAP a month ago, filed his nomination for the New Delhi seat on Monday after he officially joined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Sunday.
Chandni Chowk constituency will see a fight between Founder of Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) Praveen Khandelwal and a veteran Congress leader and five time MP JP Agarwal. Further, North east Delhi, which has a sizable 'purvanchal' population, will witness a contest between two Biharis- two times MP Manoj Tiwari and student leader turned politician Kanhaiya Kumar.
In the reserved seat of North West Delhi, former MP Udit raj, who joined Congress following his exit from BJP, is fighting against former General Secretary of BJP's Delhi unit Yogender Chandolia. From East Delhi, former Delhi BJP general secretary Harshdeep Malhotra is contesting against AAP's sitting MLA from Kondli assembly constituency Kuldeep Kumar. From West Delhi, former Mayor of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation Kamaljeet Sehrawat will contest the election battle against AAP's Mahabal Mishra, who has been an MP from the seat earlier from Congress. South Delhi seat will witness a competition to secure a win between Leader of Opposition in Delhi assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and the AAP Tughlakabad MLA Sahiram Pahalwan.
The process of filing the nominations was open from April 29 to May 6, barring the non-working days of Sunday and Saturday. Leaders were allowed to withdraw their candidature from the constituency till Thursday following which the Delhi CEO's office released the list. The polling in Delhi is slated to take place on May 25.
