India News | Delhi BJP Accelerates Process to Select Candidate for Rajinder Nagar Bypoll

New Delhi, May 27 (PTI) With less than a month to go for the Rajinder Nagar Assembly bypoll, the Delhi BJP has accelerated the process of candidate selection for the seat that has a large chunk of slum-dwelling voters.

The Election Commission on Wednesday announced the bypoll at Rajinder Nagar, along with six other Assembly constituencies and three Lok Sabha seats in different states, on June 23.

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"We are working on the ground and the process of candidate selection has also been fast-tracked. Delhi BJP in-charge Baijayant Panda and other leaders held a meeting in the constituency on Thursday, in which the preparations for the bypolls were discussed," said a leader of the saffron party.

Several names, including that of Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta, former Rajinder Nagar MLA RP Singh, former Delhi BJP general secretary Rajesh Bhatia, Delhi BJP spokespersons Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga and Harish Khurana, are doing the rounds as probable candidates.

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"Gupta and Bagga have conveyed their unwillingness to contest the bypoll from Rajinder Nagar to the national leaders," claimed a senior party leader.

He said 12 of the winning candidates in the last 14 Assembly polls held in Rajinder Nagar were Punjabis.

The Punjabi voters account for 40 per cent of the total votes in the constituency, he said.

The seat fell vacant when AAP MLA Raghav Chaddha resigned as he was promoted to the Rajya Sabha by his party.

The constituency has a diverse mix of voters, including the dominant Punjabis and Scheduled Caste voters. There are 17 large slum settlements in the constituency, including Inderpuri and Pandav Nagar, BJP leaders said.

The last Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate to win the seat was RP Singh in 2013.

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is likely to field senior leader Durgesh Pathak from the constituency.

"A victory in the Rajinder Nagar bypoll will help the party dent the AAP's dominance in Delhi's politics, so winnability will be the biggest factor in candidate selection," a Delhi BJP leader said.

The party has already started working on the ground with a series of meetings at ward and booth levels. A team headed by MLA Ajay Mahawar as the in-charge has been formed to coordinate the saffron party's reach-out programmes.

The BJP had started its preparations for the bypoll with its national president JP Nadda heading a roadshow in Rajinder Nagar on the occasion of the party's foundation day on April 6.

The results of the bypoll will be announced on June 26.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)