Delhi BJP ‘terrified’ ahead of Rajinder Nagar bypolls: AAP

The Rajinder Nagar seat was vacated by the AAP’s Raghav Chadha, who resigned after he was elevated to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab after his party’s landslide win in the state. The results of the bypoll will be announced on June 26.

The Bharatiya Janata Party is “terrified” ahead of the upcoming bypolls to the Rajinder Nagar assembly seat, the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said on Saturday, even as he informally announced Delhi’s ruling party will field Durgesh Pathak, the party’s MCD in-charge, to contest the June 23 election.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh. (HT file photo)

Pathak’s candidature is likely to be formally announced soon, even as the BJP and Congress are yet to announce their picks for the contest.

“I challenge BJP state president Adesh Gupta to contest election from Rajinder Nagar seat. Our MCD in-charge and AAP leader Durgesh Pathak will be the candidate from there. You are the BJP state president, come and contest elections from there if you dare,” Singh said.

“Ever since the bypolls were announced, the top leaders in the BJP, who are leading the Pol Khol Abhiyaan against the AAP government throughout Delhi, have been exposed for the hypocrites they are,” Singh said during a press conference on Saturday.

“Everyone recognises these two faces very well — one is Adesh Gupta, and the other is the infamous Tajinder Bagga, both of whom have refused to contest the bypolls from the Rajinder Nagar constituency. They clearly do not have the courage to face Arvind Kejriwal’s government or to contest against AAP’s competent and honest candidate. Hence both of them have absconded from the elections out of the fear of an embarrassing defeat. This disappearing act that Adesh Gupta and Bagga have pulled is evidence enough to show that their own ‘pol’ has been exposed,” Singh added.

The Rajinder Nagar seat was vacated by the AAP’s Raghav Chadha, who resigned after he was elevated to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab after his party’s landslide win in the state. The results of the bypoll will be announced on June 26.

Singh added that the BJP has grown so terribly afraid of CM Kejriwal’s progress and work oriented politics, his competent and honest government, that they first avoided the MCD elections, and are now running from by-polls in a Vidhan Sabha constituency.

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP general secretary Harsh Malhotra said candidates are selected with people’s “consent and consensus”.

“On the other hand, AAP runs around a single individual... Making an outsider its candidate is like cheating locals as he wouldn’t know problems of the area. The BIP never runs away from any elections. In fact, it is the AAP which contested polls in five states earlier this year but lost deposits heavily on many seats in four states,”he said.

Voting for the Rajendra Nagar seat is scheduled to take place on June 23 and the last date for filing nomination is June 6. The nomination papers will be scrutinised on June 7 and the last date of withdrawal of candidature is June 9. The votes will be counted on June 26.