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The Congress, on Sunday, announced its list of candidates for the Delhi constituencies in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. While former Left leader Kanhaiya Kumar was a surprise entrant, the omission of a ticket to former Congress chief minister Sheila Dixit's son, Sandeep Dixit, raised some eyebrows.
The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), both members of the INDIA bloc, are participating in elections through a seat-sharing arrangement. AAP has nominated candidates for four seats, while the Congress is contesting three Lok Sabha constituencies.
North East Delhi: Kanhaiya Kumar vs Manoj Tiwari
According to the latest candidate list released by the Congress, Kanhaiya Kumar has been given a ticket from the North East Delhi seat. The Congress leader will compete against incumbent MP and Bhojpuri singer Manoj Tiwari in North East Delhi.
Kumar, the former president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU), gained prominence during the 2016 protests. He was previously arrested (and later released) for allegedly raising "anti-national" slogans on campus. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, he contested from Begusarai on a Communist Party of India (CPI) ticket but lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party's Giriraj Singh.
Kumar subsequently joined the Congress in September 2021.
Chandni Chowk constituency: Sheila Dixit's son denied
For the Chandni Chowk constituency, the Congress has fielded J P Agarwal, who will face BJP candidate Praveen Khandelwal. Agarwal, a seasoned leader, previously won the same constituency in 1984, 1989, and 1996. Meanwhile, Khandelwal is a businessman and the founder and general secretary of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT).
However, the absence of Sandeep Dikshit, son of the late Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, from the candidate list has attracted attention. Dikshit had sought a ticket from Chandni Chowk, but the party decided to field Agarwal instead.
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North West Delhi: Turncoat Udit Raj against BJP
The Congress has also given a ticket to Udit Raj to contest from North-West Delhi against BJP's Yogendra Chandolia. Raj had previously won the constituency in 2014 as a BJP candidate. Raj joined the Congress in 2019 after being denied a ticket by the BJP.
New Delhi seat: AAP veteran Somnath Bharti vs Bansuri Swaraj
Meanwhile, the AAP has nominated three-time Delhi MLA Somnath Bharti for the New Delhi constituency, where he will compete against the ruling party's Bansuri Swaraj, the daughter of the late former Union Minister Sushma Swaraj. The BJP gave its sitting parliamentarian Meenakshi Lekhi a miss to field a newbie, Bansuri Swaraj, who has 15 years of experience in the legal profession.
East Delhi constituency
AAP MLA from Kondli, Kuldeep Kumar, has been fielded from East Delhi, where he will contest against Harsh Malhotra of the BJP. In the 2019 polls, the AAP had fielded Atishi, currently the education minister, from East Delhi against the BJP's Gautam Gambhir, the cricketer-turned-politician, who defeated her.
BJP's Malhotra is a former mayor of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation. He is one of the six candidates replacing incumbent BJP MPs in Delhi. Malhotra has replaced cricketer Gautam Gambhir, who quit the party and active politics last month.
Posh South Delhi: AAP vs BJP
AAP's Sahiraram Pehelwan, a two-time legislator from Tughlakabad, will contest from South Delhi against BJP's Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, who has won the seat two times in a row.
The AAP candidate began his political journey in 1993 and has contested elections on the Congress and Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) tickets.
However, his contest against Bidhuri is going to be tough. In the 2019 elections, Bidhuri won the South Delhi seat with a margin of 3.67 lakh votes against AAP's Raghav Chadha.
West Delhi: Mahabal Mishra vies against Kamaljeet Sehrawat
Former Congress leader Mahabal Mishra is running against BJP candidate Kamaljeet Sehrawat in the West Delhi Lok Sabha constituency.
Mishra is the senior- most among the four AAP nominees. A three-time Congress MLA, he quit the party in 2022 and joined the AAP.
As for Sehrawat, despite her unsuccessful bid in the 2008 Delhi Assembly elections, she has climbed the organisational ladder within the party's state unit over the span of several decades.
Her journey includes holding positions such as district vice-president from Najafgarh to Secretary, president of the BJP Mahila Morcha, and Delhi BJP vice-president. Presently, she holds the distinction of being the sole woman general secretary among the three such positions within the Delhi BJP.
Delhi will cast its votes on May 25, with the vote count scheduled for June 4.
