Categories: News

AAP wants to field a strong candidate for Delhi’s Rajendra Nagar byelection

New Delhi: After the Rajendra Nagar Assembly seat became vacant following AAP’s Raghav Chadha’s nomination to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab, the party is solidly preparing to regain the seat and wants to field a strong candidate who can win over BJP’s rising influence in the constituency. Although AAP is yet to finalise its candidate for the seat, Durgesh Pathak’s name is surfacing among the top leaders in the party as a political front-runner for the Assembly constituency.
Pathak, who in the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections had been in-charge of the campaign in 35 seats out of 70, and won 34 of them, was also instrumental in building a strong grassroots for the AAP in Punjab before the 2017 Assembly election. Party leaders believe that “Pathak has performed well in the party,” yet interestingly, internal sabotage is being carried out against him to ensure that he does not gain impetus in the party. Experts believe he is a strong candidate who knows the ground politics of Rajendra Nagar.
Durgesh Pathak, who is currently appointed as the election in-charge of Rajindra Nagar Assembly constituency, told The Sunday Guardian, “Currently, the party has given me the responsibility of election in-charge in the constituency and my job is to perform the duties that come under it.”
Pathak has done several campaigns in Rajendra Nagar; in the 2019 elections, he was campaigning with Raghav Chadda, and is seen as an emerging figure among the people of the region. He has also been a part of the campaign designing team that would sit with Raghav Chadha during elections.
Dipak Sharma, a Delhi-based political analyst, said, “If a strong face comes in the BJP, then it could be a challenge for the Aam Aadmi Party. Still, due to the momentum that the party has after winning Punjab, the party has a great chance of repossessing the seat.
BJP in all likelihood may again field R.P. Singh, who lost the last Assembly elections, on the Rajendra Nagar constituency against Raghav Chadha. And the grand old party is planning to field Ajay Maken on the seat.”
However, P.K.D. Nambiar, another Delhi-based political analyst, told The Sunday Guardian, “The prospects for AAP are weak, in that seat it may be the BJP actually that will win the seat, there is already resentment against the AAP government; secondly, if you look for the last couple of months, BJP is very serious and active in Delhi, there was a dull period in between for BJP but now with various on-ground activities, they seem back into the action. There is some amount of resentment along with BJP planning to put up a very good candidate on that seat which will consequently give a bigger challenge to the AAP.”

Badar Bashir

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