New Delhi, June 1 As the Delhi BJP has started the process of short listing the names for Rajinder Nagar Assembly bypoll, cadres at ground urged the party leadership not to field an outsider.
The bypoll was necessitated after AAP's Raghav Chadha resigned from the Delhi Assembly after being elected to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab. Polling will be held on June 23 and counting of votes will take place on June 26.
A senior Delhi BJP functionary said that the party is fully prepared to defeat the AAP candidate."Election preparation is in place and workers from the constituency are fully geared up but they have only one demand that the candidate must be local and Punjabi to suit the demography of the Rajinder Nagar," he said.
Another leader said that sentiment of cadre at ground to field local and Punjabi has been conveyed to the state leadership for consideration before shortlisting the names.
Before shortlisting names to be recommended to BJP Central Election Committee (CEC), party national vice-president Baijayant Jay Panda, Delhi unit president Adesh Gupta and union minister Meenakshi Lekhi met potential candidates.
" Met some of the potential candidates for the upcoming Rajinder Nagar bye-election along with @adeshguptabjp @siddharthanbjp @M_Lekhi. The final candidate will be announced soon, as each one has to go through a set procedure defined by the democratic principles of our party," Panda, in-charge Delhi BJP, tweeted on Tuesday.
Sources said that former MLA from the constituency and party national spokesperson Sardar R.P. Singh, Delhi BJP vice-president Rajan Tewari, former state unit general secretary Rajesh Bhatia, spokesperson Harish Khurana, former councilor Chail Bihar Goswami, Sonia Sinha, district office bearer Suresh Gupta, Umang Bajaj and others called for interaction.
"Ex-councillor Pramod Tanwar, who defeated Tewari in 2012 municipal polls, also called for the interaction," party sources said.
It is learnt that the Delhi BJP will be forwarding the three shortlisted names to party central leadership in a day or two. The saffron party started its preparation for the bypoll on its foundation day on April 6 with a roadshow of BJP chief J.P. Nadda. The party workers started a door-to-door campaign under the leadership of Assembly in-charge for bypolls Ajay Mahawar.
The BJP workers are also holding corner meetings of five to seven people over tea and explaining to them about the development agenda and vision for Delhi and Rajinder Nagar.
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