Cricketer-Turned-Politician Gautam Gambhir Is BJP's East Delhi Candidate

Gautam Gambhir, the cricketer-turned-politician, is the BJP's candidate in the East Delhi constituency, the party said in a release today. Also on the list is Meenakshi Lekhi, a BJP parliamentarian, who is fielded in the New Delhi constituency.

Mr Gambhir has replaced Maheish Girri as the party's candidate and will take on Arvinder Singh Lovely of the Congress and Atishi of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Ms Lekhi is pitted against AAP's Brajesh Goel and Ajay Maken of the Congress.

On Monday, the BJP had released a list of five candidates in which it re-nominated four of its sitting lawmakers in the national capital.

Union Minister Harsh Vardhan and BJP state unit president Manoj Tiwari have been fielded in Chandni Chowk and North East Delhi seats respectively.

Former Delhi Chief Minister Saheb Singh Verma's son Parvesh Verma has been fielded in West Delhi and Ramesh Bidhuri in South Delhi.

The former India opening batsman, who retired from cricket in December after a 15-year stint, joined the party last month. "I have been influenced by the PM, his vision for the country. This is a fabulous platform for me to do something for the country," Gautam Gambhir, 37, had said after joining the party.

His social media posts with strong comments on contemporary politics and incidents had inspired talk about his joining politics. His Twitter account is full of posts on the Pulwama terror attack, in which 40 soldiers were killed by a suicide bomber of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Mr Gambhir, a resident of Delhi's Rajinder Nagar, had campaigned for BJP leader Arun Jaitley in Amritsar in the 2014 national elections.

Voting in Delhi will take place on May 12.