2024 elections: Delhi BJP names in-charges for 7 Lok Sabha seats

The BJP in Delhi appointed 'Lok Sabha Prabharis' or the in-charges for seven parliamentary constituencies in the national capital, with responsibilities ranging from supervising organisational activities to managing political functioning. These in-charges will "supervise anything and everything related to the party's political and organisational activities in their Lok Sabha seats".

Appointed "exclusively" for next year's general elections, these Lok Sabha in-charges have been given a good headstart to prevent "any last-minute challenges", said one of the seven in-charges.

Praveen Shankar Kapoor, the BJP's media department head in Delhi, said the Lok Sabha in-charges will ensure that the party's macro- and micro-level organisation and political programmes are put in place at least six months before the polls. "According to directions of the Delhi BJP, the Lok Sabha in-charges will also ensure that door-to-door voter outreach and organisational works such as appointments of booth-level functionaries such as 'panna pramukhs' are completed in time," Kapoor said, adding that this is being done to avoid last-minute challenges.

One of the in-charges told the media that they will supervise anything and everything related to the party's political and organisational activities in their Lok Sabha seats.

Harsh Malhotra, the BJP's Delhi unit general secretary, will be in charge of the East Delhi seat; Dinesh Pratap Singh, the state unit vice-president, for New Delhi; former mayor Jai Prakash for West Delhi and Kamaljeet Sehrawat for North East Delhi.

Yogendra Chandaulia, the BJP's Delhi general secretary, has been appointed the in-charge for the North West Delhi constituency; Rajiv Babbar for South Delhi and Rajesh Bhatia for the Chandni Chowk seat. The BJP won all seven seats in the 2014 and 2019 polls.

Party nominees

A senior BJP functionary in Delhi said the in-charges are treated as the party's nominees from their assigned seats and added, "They are expected to prepare for the polls at the organisational and the political levels as they themselves would do if given a ticket".

The Lok Sabha in-charges attend important organisational meetings and coordinate with district unit chiefs and in-charges on political and organisational activities in the constituency assigned to them, party leaders said. They also provide feedback to the party leadership formally and informally on a wide range of issues, including the performance and popularity of sitting MPs, as well as suitable probables from the seat assigned to them, they added.

The BJP will be up against the AAP and the Congress in Delhi. While the AAP and the Congress are partners in the INDIA bloc, formed for the 2024 polls, they are till now going to the hustings alone.

There were discussions on seat sharing between the two parties ahead of the 2019 elections. When the talks failed, the AAP and the Congress fielded separate candidates.

The BJP, however, polled more votes than the AAP and the Congress candidates combined in all seven seats. 

(With agency inputs)