Delhi BJP releases first list of 232 candidates for MCD polls
The Hindu
Party withholds names on 18 seats due to some disputes; fields 126 women candidates in the first list
The Delhi BJP on Saturday released its first list of 232 candidates for the December 4 civic polls in the city. The party withheld names on 18 seats “due to some disputes”, a senior party leader said.
The party said it has given more representation to women with 126 female candidates featuring in comparison to 106 men. The party has retained 52 former councillors, including nine former mayors, as well as three former Assembly poll candidates for this year’s civic body polls. The poll results will be announced on December 7. The last day to file nominations is November 14.
Party’s MCD election management committee chief Ashish Sood said the remaining 18 candidate names will be declared by Sunday night as the party was still “evaluating” some things like pending cases, documentation among other things.
The candidates fielded include the former Mayor of the erstwhile North Delhi Municipal Corporation, Raja Iqbal Singh, who supervised the bulldozer-led demolition drive at the violence-hit Jahangirpuri in April this year.
Mr. Singh will contest from the Mukherjee Nagar ward, while his previous ward, G.T.B Nagar, was merged during the delimitation exercise which saw a reduction of the total number of municipal wards to 250, from the earlier number of 272.
Other familiar faces include Inderjeet Sehrawat, the former leader of the House at the erstwhile South Delhi Municipal Corporation, who will contest from his previous seat of Mahipalpur.
Former Congress councillor from Govindpuri ward Chander Prakash, who joined the BJP hours before the list was released, has been fielded from the same seat. He had won the 2017 civic polls defeating BJP’s Ravinder Kumar.
In 2021, five women from Mayithara, four of them MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) workers, found a common ground in their desire to create a sustainable livelihood by growing vegetables. Rajamma M., Mary Varkey, Valsala L., Elisho S., and Praseeda Sumesh, aged between 70 and 39, pooled their savings, rented a piece of land and began their collective vegetable farming journey under the Deepam Krishi group.