Former cricketer Gautam Gambhir has been fielded by the Bharatiya Janata Party from East Delhi parliamentary constituency as the party released its second list of candidates for the capital on Monday.
The party has given the ticket to senior leader Meenakshi Lekhi from New Delhi parliamentary constituency, where she will be up against AAP’s Brajesh Goel and Ajay Maken of the Congress.
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BJP replaced Maheish Girri with Gambhir as the party’s candidate from East Delhi and the former cricketer will take on Arvinder Singh Lovely of the Congress and Atishi of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Gambhir had joined the BJP last month, saying he was impressed by the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and would work for the country’s welfare as a member of the party.
The BJP released its first list of candidate for Delhi on Sunday, retaining all four MPs. Minister of Science and technology Dr Harshvardhan has been fielded from Chandni Chowk, from where he won in the 2014 elections. Manoj Tiwari has been again given the ticket from North East Delhi, while Pravesh Verma and Ramesh Bidhur will be contesting from West Delhi and South Delhi respectively.
The party is yet to name its candidate for the North-west Delhi constituency. The BJP had won all seven seats in the national capital in the last election.
Earlier in the day, the Congress declared names of its candidates for six out of seven seats in Delhi. It is yet to announce a candidate for South Delhi.
Sheila Dikshit, former Delhi chief minister and DPCC president, has been named as Congress’s candidate from North East Delhi and JP Aggarwal from Chandni Chowk.