10 Union ministers to campaign for BJP in Delhi Rajinder Nagar bypoll

Harish Khurana, Delhi’s BJP spokesperson, said, “The party is putting all its efforts into the election. All our senior leaders, including Union ministers, will campaign in the days to come. We are confident of winning the bypoll.”

Forty Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including 10 Union ministers such as Piyush Goyal, Smriti Irani, Narendra Singh Tomar and Giriraj Singh, will campaign for the party’s candidate, Rajesh Bhatia for the Rajinder Nagar assembly bypoll, senior leaders said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, AAP Delhi convenor Gopal Rai said the BJP is misleading the public by playing the politics of caste and religion to. (Reuters file photo. Representative image)

Harish Khurana, Delhi’s BJP spokesperson, said, “The party is putting all its efforts into the election. All our senior leaders, including Union ministers, will campaign in the days to come. We are confident of winning the bypoll.”

The Rajinder Nagar seat became vacant after the sitting Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator Raghav Chadha was nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab, after the party’s resounding win in the agrarian state.

The AAP has fielded Durgesh Pathak, the party’s in-charge of municipal affairs, and the Congress has fielded Prem Lata, a former councillor, against Bhatia.

Meanwhile, AAP Delhi convenor Gopal Rai said the BJP is misleading the public by playing the politics of caste and religion to. Rai also held a jansabha (public meeting) at Valmiki Temple, Naraina, in the Rajinder Nagar constituency, while Pathak, AAP’s candidate for the seat started his campaign on Thursday with a series of padyatras.

The result, which will be declared on June 26, will not affect the power equation in the Delhi assembly where the AAP holds a brute majority with 62 seats of the total 70, but experts believe that the since the polls are coming within a month of the unification of the municipal corporations, the result may help gauge the public mood. Also, they said, that it could be the only elections to be held this year with no development on the elections to the corporation, which could only happen after a long delimitation exercise.

For the BJP, which has been trying to win back its stronghold since 2008 —BJP represented the constituency from 1993 till 2008—when it lost the constituency to Congress’ Ramakant Goswami, a positive result could be a boost to their claims that the unification of MCD was a step in the right direction, and the Congress would like to use it as another opportunity to get a foothold in the Delhi assembly.

Though BJP’s national spokesperson RP Singh won the seat in 2013, it was for a brief period. AAP’s Vijender Garg won the constituency in 2015 followed by Chadha in 2020, both local residents.