The BJP dropped six sitting MPs from seven Lok Sabha seats when it released its second list recently. Singer-turned-politician Manoj Tiwari from Northeast Delhi was the only MP who has been given a ticket again.
Despite winning all seven seats in the national capital in the 2014 and the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP changed six out of its seven candidates.
MPs Harsh Vardhan, Meenakshi Lekhi, Ramesh Bidhuri and Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma recorded back-to-back victories in 2014 and 2019. They were still dropped. Singer Hans Raj Hans also did not make it to the list while Gautam Gambhir opted out of the race.
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According to reports, fresh faces were fielded to beat any potential anti-incumbency against them. ““I feel proud that the party leadership chose all seven candidates with strong organisational background. All these candidates are close to the party workers in their area. We will fight this election with a positive agenda and will win all seven seats,” Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva told Hindustan Times.
Who is Manoj Tiwari?
Born in 1971 in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, Tiwari he contested the 2009 Lok Sabha elections as a Samajwadi Party candidate from Gorakhpur. However, he lost to Yogi Adityanath. In 2014, Tiwari joined the BJP and contested the from Northeast Delhi. He won by a margin of over 3 lakh votes and was re-elected in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He was also at the forefront of the BJP's offensive against the Aam Aadmi Party government in the Delhi liquor policy case.
Influence on Purvanchalis
The term “Purvanchali” is used to refer to migrants from Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh. As per reports, they comprise 40 percent of the national capital’s electorate. This area is part of the larger region where Bhojpuri is the main spoken language. Tiwari is one of the biggest Bhojpuri stars who has sung and acted alike. The Purvanchalis influence 30-35 assembly seats and parliamentary seats such as West Delhi, East Delhi, North East Delhi, North West Delhi, and South Delhi.
Dropping Tiwari wasn’t an option considering his popularity in a large part of this area.
Aligning with party brass
Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma was dropped this time for “inflammatory comments ahead of Delhi elections despite being the son of former chief minister Sahib Singh Verma. A similar fate has been meted to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur who supported Nathuram Godse who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi Tiwari . Along with the senior party leaders, Tiwari used to criticised hate speech.
After losing the 2020 Delhi assembly election, Tiwari said, “Whatever the context, it was hate speech and our party had to face losses due to that. We condemned that speech then as well as today.”
Congress-AAP alliance
Within the INDIA Opposition bloc, the AAP and the Congress will be contesting four and three seats in Delhi, respectively. In the 2019 polls, the AAP and the Congress had a vote share of 18 percent and 22 per cent, respectively. The BJP got nearly 57 percent votes. In 2014, the AAP had about 33 percent vote share and the Congress over 15 percent. With the AAP and Congress fighting together in Delhi, the BJP knows the opposition vote will not get divided. Fielding Tiwari is seen as the effort to not break its 7-0 streak.
The Lok Sabha election to choose 543 members to the Lower House is scheduled to be held in April-May this year.
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