The South Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, which will go to polls on May 25 along with six other constituencies, will witness a straight contest between BJP’s Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and AAP’s Sahi Ram Pehalwan who is the INDIA bloc candidate.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri won the South Delhi Lok Sabha seat bagging 56.68 per cent of the votes polled. The BJP won all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi in 2019.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the AAP and Congress have forged an alliance in Delhi which has seven Lok Sabha seats.

The seven Lok Sabha constituencies in the national capital are New Delhi, South Delhi, East Delhi, West Delhi, Chandni Chowk, North West and North East Delhi.

The South Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, one of the seven parliamentary constituency in NCT of Delhi, constituted in 1966, comprises Bijwasan, Palam, Mehrauli, Chhattarpur, Deoli (SC), Ambedkar Nagar (SC), Sangam Vihar, Kalkaji, Tughlakabad and Badarpur assembly segments.

Ramvir Singh Bidhuri is currently an MLA from the Badarpur Assembly segment and the Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Legislative Assembly.

He started his political journey in 1970 as an ABVP member. He was associated with Jana Sangh till 1974 as an active member. He was the Chairman of the Haryana State Warehousing Corporation with the rank of Cabinet Minister from 1981-85.

He was elected to the first Legislative Assembly of Delhi in 1993 and since then has been elected as a member of the Legislative Assembly four times. After being elected MLA for the fourth time in 2020, he was elected the Leader of the BJP Legislature Party and became the Leader of the Opposition with the rank of a cabinet minister. Bidhuri was nominated as a member of the National Executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2013.

Sahi Ram Pehalwan is a two-time MLA from Tughlakabad and a Gujjar leader.

Earlier, he was with the BSP and was a two-time councillor. Pehalwan was also the Deputy Mayor of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation.

The AAP candidate filed his nomination papers from the South Delhi Lok Sabha constituency on May 1.

In an interaction with The Statesman, Bidhuri while talking about the key issues which would be focused in the South Delhi parliamentary constituency, said, ” A total 69 affluent colonies will be regularised. The areas of South Delhi which are not connected with the metro, will be connected with it. Focus will be to build schools, parks, stadiums and hospitals on the government lands which are vacant in villages and colonies of Delhi.”

On BJP’s prospects in Delhi for the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP leader asserted that the party will win all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. “In the year 2019, 57 per cent-60 per cent votes were cast. This time, on all seven Lok Sabha seats, more than 70 per cent vote will be cast for the BJP’s candidates for the Lok Sabha polls,” he said.

On May 3, Bidhuri filed his nomination papers with thousands of supporters present on the occasion.

Bidhuri listed the development work for Delhi done by the Modi government, including peripheral roads, Eco Park, six-lane National Highway, India Gate Tunnel, National War Memorial, Kartavya Marg, new Parliament building, and the statue of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at India Gate.

Launching a scathing attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the BJP leader said, “Arvind Kejriwal destroyed Delhi. People are not getting drinking water and good transportation facilities. He has made Delhi world’s most polluted city…The Delhi government has not opened hospitals, schools and colleges. CM Kejriwal keeps on talking about purchasing 15,000 buses for DTC … The Yamuna River has become more poisonous than before.”

All seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi are going to polls in the sixth phase of Lok Sabha polls on May 25.

The nominations will be scrutinized on May 7 and nominations can be withdrawn till May 9. Votes will be counted on June 4.