As Kailash Gahlot quits Atishi govt, AAP-BJP eye 25 Delhi Dehat seats ahead of assembly polls

New Delhi: The entry of former Delhi minister Kailash Gahlot in the BJP on Monday, a day after he quit the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), has brought into focus the fight between the two parties for nearly 25 seats in the Delhi Dehat area.

Moving in quickly to control the damage caused by the exit of Gahlot, a popular Jat leader, AAP on Monday announced his replacement by another member of the community, Raghuvinder Shokeen, in the Atishi government.

Raghuvinder Shokeen, is a two-time AAP MLA from Nangloi.

On Monday itself, Congress leader and former Matiala MLA Sumesh Shokeen joined AAP in presence of the party convener Kejriwal.

The two developments took place on the day Gahlot joined the BJP in the presence of Union minister ML Khattar and others in the party headquarters. He had quit the Kejriwal-led AAP on Sunday.

Gahlot's exit has brought into focus the contest between the BJP and AAP on nearly 25 Delhi Dehat seats of the 70-member Delhi Assembly.

Nangloi and Matiala assembly constituencies are in the Delhi Dehat region.

Raghuvinder Shokeen, a two-time MLA, is an active political figure from Delhi's rural landscape, AAP leader and former Delhi minister Manish Sisodia said in a press conference.

AAP follows the policy of inclusiveness while the BJP has consistently acted against the interests of the Jat community in Delhi, Raghuvinder Shokeen charged.

AAP asserted that Gahlot's exit will have least impact in the Delhi assembly elections due in February next year.

Delhi Dehat, the rural parts of Delhi, includes more than 20 assembly constituencies that were part of erstwhile Outer Delhi Lok Sabha seat. These include Najafgarh from where Gahlot is an MLA, Nangloi, Matiala, Bawana, Badarpur, Tughalqabad, Mehrauli, Narela, Sultanpur Majra and Bhalswa among others.

These outlying constituencies have pockets of rural population settled in villages of different communities, particularly Jats and Gujjars. There are over 100 villages where Jats and Gujjars have a sizable population, said a senior BJP leader.

The BJP is gearing up to recapture the Delhi Dehat area in the upcoming assembly polls. In the previous 2015 and 2020 assembly elections, AAP won almost all these seats.

The BJP managed to win Badarpur in the 2020 assembly polls with its candidate Ramvir Singh Bidhuri defeating his AAP rival in a close contest. Bidhuri is now South Delhi Lok Sabha MP of the BJP.

Eyeing to cash in on the anti-incumbency of AAP that has been in power in Delhi since 2015, the BJP is likely to field its top guns like former MPs Ramesh Bidhuri and Parvesh Verma from the rural Delhi seats, party leaders claimed.

"The party has also planned to field senior leaders and functionaries who have a sound track record and good chances of winning from not only Delhi Dehat seats but all the 70 constituencies," they said.

Earlier in the day, Kejriwal at a party event during the joining of Sumesh Shokeen, said AAP's efforts have transformed rural Delhi into an integral part of the city's growth story.

"Before the AAP government, people living in rural areas did not feel as if they were a part of Delhi. We have ensured equitable development in rural Delhi by providing roads, schools, Mohalla Clinics, stadiums and other facilities there," he said.