NEW DELHI: With BJP releasing its first list of candidates, the stage is set for a high-octane triangular political battle for the upcoming Delhi assembly polls, which will reshape the political fortunes of three major parties and several leaders.
Though BJP has named candidates only for 29 seats and Congress too has declared contestants for 48 seats, excitement over the outcome of some of the contests is quite palpable. Several top AAP functionaries, including party chief Arvind Kejriwal, incumbent Delhi CM Atishi and ex-deputy CM Manish Sisodia, have their job cut out with the two opposition parties – BJP and Congress – naming heavyweight candidates against them.
The most interesting of the contests will be played out in the New Delhi assembly constituency, known for the bungalows of top politicians, bureaucrats, judges and industrialists in Lutyens’ Delhi and where a large number of govt servants stay. Here, former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is pitted against the sons of two former chief ministers. Congress has fielded Sheila Dikshit’s son, Sandeep, while BJP has reposed its faith in Sahib Singh Verma’s young and aggressive son, Parvesh.
Both Sandeep and Parvesh have been elected to Parliament twice, albeit in different years and different constituencies, and have no electoral experience in the New Delhi constituency. Sandeep was MP from East Delhi in 2004 and 2009 while Parvesh represented West Delhi in Lok Sabha in 2014 and 2019.
Though Sheila Dikshit won from the erstwhile Gole Market constituency in 1998 and 2003, it got erased in the 2007 delimitation exercise and New Delhi constituency was born. It then sent her to the assembly in 2008.
“I will work for providing more employment opportunities, dignified housing for slum-dwellers, women’s empowerment, better education and healthcare, and world-class infrastructure in the city,” Parvesh said after his name was announced.
Kejriwal won three consecutive elections from New Delhi — in 2013, 2015 and 2020 — by big margins and has thrown his hat in the ring for the fourth consecutive term.
CM Atishi is also engaged in an interesting political battle in Kalkaji, which sent her to the assembly for the first time in 2020. She is being challenged by Alka Lamba of Congress and Ramesh Bidhuri of BJP. One of the most vocal MLAs during her term as AAP legislator from Chandni Chowk between 2105 and 2019 (when she resigned from the party), Lamba is new to Kalkaji. And so is Bidhuri who won his three Vidhan Sabha elections from the neighbouring Tughlaqabad constituency in 1998, 2003 and 2008. Kalkaji, however, is a part of South Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, which Bidhuri represented from 2014 to 2024.
In Jangpura, Sisodia is locked in an interesting triangular contest with BJP’s Tarvinder Singh Marwah and Congress’ Farhad Suri. All three candidates will be facing different sets of challenges in the constituency. It is a new turf for Sisodia, who won the last three elections from Patparganj – the last one in 2020 by a small margin of 3,207 votes. Marwah, on the other hand, won from here in 1998, 2003 and 2008, but lost three consecutive polls in 2013, 2015 and 2020, all as a Congress candidate. This is the first time he will contest on a BJP ticket. Suri will also be contesting from Jangpura for the first time. The last time he contested for the assembly was in 2009 in a by-election from Okhla. He has been a municipal councillor four times but lost the 2022 civic poll from Daryaganj ward by just 244 votes.
The election in Gandhi Nagar is likely to be a keen contest too, with former minister Arvinder Singh Lovely trying his luck for the first time on a BJP ticket. He won in 1998, 2003, 2008 and 2013 from Gandhi Nagar, did not contest in 2015 and lost in 2020. He’s pitted against AAP’s Naveen Chaudhary, who was defeated by BJP’s Anil Kumar Bajpai in 2020.
