MCD polls: Delhi BJP issues first list of 232 candidates

New Delhi [India], November 12 : As highly discussed civic body polls of the national capital scheduled in December inch closer, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday issued its first list of 232 candidates.
The remaining 18 candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party will be announced later.
The party pitted Keshrani Khatri from Narela (W) constituency, Anil Tyagi from Burari, Urmila Rana from Kadipur, Suman Sharma from Azadpur (W), Anubhav Dheer from, Adarsh Nagar, Lallu Singh Thakur from Bhalswa, Divya Jha from Jehangirpuri, Gayatri Yadav from Samaypur Badli (W), Naveen Garg from Rohini-A, Narendra Solanki from Rithala, Vikesh Sethi from Model Town, among others for the civic body- MCD- polls.
As per reports, the names of the BJP candidates were decided after going through a screening process after BJP's Delhi unit was flooded with around 15,000 probable candidates seeking a ticket, with at least three aspirants vying for a seat.
Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday fielded Bobby Kinaar, a member of the Transgender community, as a candidate for the upcoming Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections.
The transgender candidate will contest the Sultanpuri-A ward, against Ekta Jatav, a candidate of the BJP.
Bobby had earlier contested in the 2017 MCD election as an Independent candidate. Although, Bobby lost the polls, the candidature had created a lot of buzz.
The AAP is now counting on her to deliver a win from the MCD's ward number 45.
The Sultanpuri-A ward is a seat reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates. In the 2017 elections, AAP's Sanjeev Kumar had won the seat.
Delhi Chief Minister and AAP's national convener Arvind Kejriwal has released the party's manifesto for the December 4 polls saying that his government will work on fulfilling 10 'guarantees'.
"We will work to fulfil 10 guarantees. We will clean the streets of Delhi and solve the issue of garbage pile. We will also carry out beautification of parks," Kejriwal said at a press conference.
He also promised to make the MCD corruption-free and solve vehicle-parking problems as part of his manifesto for the polls. MCD workers will be paid on time, assured Kejriwal.
On November 9, Kejriwal chaired a meeting with top officials in the national capital. The meeting followed a crucial meeting of AAP MLAs chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and also featuring the party's state convenor and minister Gopal Rai. They were assigned responsibilities at different levels to prepare for the civic elections.
As part of its preparations for the polls, the AAP has also launched the 'Kude Par Jansamvad' campaign during which AAP leaders will listen to people's garbage problems and discuss their solutions through Jansamvad (public interaction).
By November 20, the party plans to hold a public dialogue at each of Delhi's 13,682 civic booths. It has been decided that the party will hold about 500 public meetings per day. The meetings will be led by party MLAs.
AAP office bearers have been directed to visit all areas of Delhi, meet people and try to understand their issues.
Earlier, the total number of civic wards in the national capital was reduced from 272 to 250 following a notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The notification pertained to redrawing of the MCD wards.
The nomination process for the polls is already underway. November 14 is the last date for filimg nominations and the scrutiny of forms will take place on November 16. The last date for withdrawal of nominations is November 19.
Notably, the BJP has governed the civic bodies since 2007.
In the civic body polls in 2017, the BJP won 181 of the 270 wards. No polling could be held on two seats due to the death of candidates. The AAP had won 48 wards, while the Congress managed to win 27.
The counting of votes will be done on December 7.