The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has extended support to Independent candidates, including one from a minority community, in five wards for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections, after nominations of the party’s official candidates were rejected there.
These five candidates on Tuesday joined the party in presence of BJP Delhi incharge Shyam Jaju and other senior leaders. They are Lata Soni (Lado Sarai), Gulfam (Abul Fazal Enclave), Rahul Singh (Vinod Nagar), Twinkle Kalia (Kishanganj), Amrita Rashmi (Baprola).
As reported earlier, in a major fiasco, the nomination of six of BJP candidates were rejected by the Delhi Election Commission, on technical grounds. Out of these, the Delhi High Court has reinstated the nomination of one candidate.
Party’s fresh move is a seen a ‘course correction’ in order to improve its performance in the civic polls, scheduled to be held on 23 April.
Jaju said: “These five candidates had filed nomination either as an Independent candidate or as member of own party. But they all expressed their desire to join the BJP. We found their political approach adhering to ours.”
There are total 272 seats in the MCD out of which the party has give five seats to its partner Shiromani Akali Dal.
In a related development, many Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders of Delhi joined the BJP along with their supporters in presence of Shyam Jaju at the party’s Delhi unit office. Those who joined the BJP are Vinod Vats, Ajay Saini, Jagmohan Sharma, Sunil Dagar, Navratna Sharma and Nisha.
