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Delhi Assembly Elections 2020: BJP goes to grassroots to select candidates, begins process
Delhi Assembly Elections 2020: The observers, including leaders from the central and state BJP units, would interact with block/district-level workers and volunteers to collect names of suitable candidates.
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Delhi unit on Wednesday kick-started its process to identify and select potential candidates for the February 8 assembly elections.
The party sent observers—who are members of the election coordination and campaign committee—to 12 districts in seven parliamentary constituencies to collect names of potential candidates from grassroots workers and office-bearers.
For the South Delhi parliamentary constituency, the process will be conducted on Thursday where Union minister Prakash Javadekar will go as an observer.
One parliamentary constituency will cover two districts and each district will cover five assembly segments.
The observers, including leaders from the central and state BJP units, would interact with block and district-level workers and local volunteers, and collect names of candidates they think would be most suitable to fight the assembly elections.
Assembly polls are slated for February 8 and the results will be announced on February 11. The nomination process will start from January 14 and the last date to withdraw nominations is January 24.
BJP’s Delhi election management committee convener Tarun Chugh, who is one of the observers, said the process of collecting names would be completed in two days.
“Most observers have visited their areas and collected names based on the feedback from ground-level workers comprising district and zonal presidents, present and former municipal councillors among others. These names have been locked in sealed boxes, which will be scrutinised by the state election committee before being sent to the central leadership for the final process,” Chug, who is also national general secretary of the BJP, said.
Chug visited New Delhi constituency for the candidate selection process on Wednesday. “The first list is expected to be out in a week’s time,” he said.
Delhi BJP’s media-in-charge for assembly elections Ashok Goyal said the party’s national general secretaries Anil Jain and Arun Singh visited Chandni Chowk and Northwest Delhi parliamentary constituencies as observers while BJP national vice-president Shyam Jaju had gone to East Delhi.
Union minister Nityanand Rai visited Northeast Delhi parliamentary constituency while the BJP’s national vice-president Dushyant Gautam went to West Delhi for the feedback process.
“The entire exercise is to ensure transparency in the candidate selection procedure and make it more democratic. District and zonal-level office-bearers will suggest their choice of candidates through a secret poll. They will have to suggest three names from each assembly constituency,” Goyal said.
A functionary at the party’s Delhi unit, who wished not to be named, said the exercise would strengthen grassroots level workers’ confidence as they would get a platform to voice their opinion.
“The view of workers who have to work on the ground is very important. Through such an exercise, the party will get to know the ground situation and the undercurrent against or in favour for probable candidates,” he said.
