Delhi: After ticket distribution, BJP workers protest outside party office
Workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday staged a protest outside the party's office in New Delhi over the distribution of tickets for the upcoming Assembly elections. The protest comes a day after a similar demonstration outside working BJP President JP Nadda's residence. On Friday, the saffron party had announced poll candidates for 57 out of 70 poll-bound Assembly seats.
At Sunday's protest, BJP workers held up placards against Delhi BJP Chief Manoj Tiwari. One of the placards read, "Modi ji ke saath, Manoj ke khilaf (With Modi, against Manoj)." On Saturday, party workers from Delhi Cantt held a protest outside JP Nadda's residence, demanding a ticket for their leader. Notably, the BJP is yet to announce candidates for 13 seats, including Delhi Cantt.
Since BJP's candidate announcement, workers have staged multiple protests. BJP workers from Model Town and Gandhi Nagar Saturday staged a protest outside the party's Delhi office. Notably, in both Model Town and Gandhi Nagar constituencies, the BJP has fielded former Aam Aadmi Party MLAs—Kapil Mishra and Anil Bajpai respectively. Workers from Rithala also protested over the denial of a ticket to their leader.
Delhi BJP Media Committee Convener for Assembly Elections, Ashok Goyal, told PTI, "[Protestors] are part of the family and such reaction is natural after ticket distribution. The BJP is a disciplined party and everyone is united to work for the party's victory in the elections."
The BJP had on Friday announced 57 candidates out of the 70 seats in the Delhi Assembly that will go to poll on February 8. The party is yet to announce a candidate against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is contesting from the New Delhi seat. The remaining candidates will be announced soon. The last date to file the nomination is January 21.
The AAP announced poll candidates for all 70 seats on Tuesday. Notably, the party had dropped 15 sitting MLAs after a performance review. Thereafter, two party MLAs, Adarsh Shastri from Dwarka and Jagdeep Singh from Hari Nagar, quit the party. Shastri joined the Congress party while Singh is in talks with BJP's ally Shiromani Akali Dal. The party described this as "unfortunate but expected."
The Congress on Saturday announced 54 poll candidates and will announce the rest later. The party has already fielded Shastri from his Dwarka seat. However, the ticket distribution also left many in the party upset. Delhi Congress leader Yoganand Shastri resigned from the party because his daughter didn't get a ticket. Congress workers from two constituencies also protested outside party President Sonia Gandhi's residence.
All 70 Delhi Assembly seats will go to poll on February 8, with the result declaration on February 11. In the 2015 polls, the AAP had bagged 67 seats, the BJP took three, while the Congress party drew a blank.
