The BJP and the Congress on Saturday fielded former local councillors Rajesh Bhatia and Prem Lata respectively as their candidates against Aam Aadmi Party’s Durgesh Pathak for the June 23 Rajinder Nagar Assembly bypoll..
Mr. Bhatia, who belongs to the Punjabi community which forms a large chunk of votes in Rajinder Nagar, is also a former general secretary of the BJP’s Delhi unit. He was elected as a councillor in 2012 from the Rajinder Nagar municipal ward of the erstwhile North Delhi Municipal Corporation.
Mr. Bhatia, 57, started his political career as a Yuva Morcha office-bearer of the Rajinder Nagar unit and later held the post of Karol Bagh district president of the BJP.
Delhi BJP leaders said Mr. Bhatia had impressed the leadership through his dedicated work during the Uttarakhand Assembly polls.
Meanwhile, a press release issued by AICC said Congress president Sonia Gandhi has approved the candidature of Prem Lata, ex councilor, as Congress candidate for the bypoll to Delhi Assembly from Rajinder Nagar constituency.
Prem Lata, won municipal poll from Pusa ward under Rajinder Nagar constituency, in 2012. She however, unsuccessfully, contested from Inderpuri ward in the same Assembly constituency in 2017, said a senior Delhi Congress leader.
The Rajinder Nagar Assembly seat became vacant as sitting AAP MLA Raghav Chadha was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab.
In the 2020 Delhi Assembly polls, Mr. Chadha had defeated the BJP’s R.P. Singh with a margin of over 20,000 votes. The BJP had last won the seat in 2013.
The last date for filing nomination papers for the bypoll is June 6. Voting will be held on June 23 and results will be declared on June 26.
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