By fielding Sandeep Dikshit, son of former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit from the New Delhi Assembly segment, the Congress has challenged Aam Aadmi Party boss, Arvind Kejriwal in his own citadel. Kejriwal had defeated Sheila Dikshit in 2013 by a margin of over 26,500 votes and had thus emerged as a principal leader of the capital.
This time around, Kejriwal shall be facing Sheila’s son and the contest promises to be an interesting battle since it would also test the Aam Aadmi Party’s record against the 15-year-old legacy of the former CM. Old timers in the party still believe that the Congress rule of 15 years had led to enormous development and though Kejriwal led his party to huge wins, the voters are bound to make fresh comparisons.
At present, the Congress has no seat in the Assembly and the AAP is on the threshold of a hat-trick. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which has at least 32% vote share and holds all the seven Lok Sabha seats, is yet to announce its candidate for New Delhi. Unofficially, several names are doing the rounds, including that of Parvesh Verma, two-time MP and son of former Delhi CM, Sahib Singh Verma.
So far as the Congress is concerned, its primary objective is to reclaim the lost ground in Delhi which is very difficult, given the poor organizational structure. In order to make a comeback in the city, the Congress shall have to overcome the hurdles posed both by AAP and the BJP and its plight is somewhat peculiar.
As per calculations of many political pundits, if the Congress performs better than before, it shall be cutting into the BJP votes or rather the anti-Kejriwal votes. This would mean that the AAP would benefit from a strong challenge posed by the grand old party. The situation is somewhat similar to what existed in West Bengal during the Parliamentary poll where the BJP suffered after the Congress and the Left parties cut into the anti-Mamata votes.
However, the New Delhi contest would keep the Congress in the limelight and Sandeep Dikshit shall be fighting the mother of all battles to make inroads into the AAP stronghold in order to provide hope to his party colleagues.
It is important to recall that in the three Assembly polls which Sheila Dikshit had contested from 1998 to 2008, the BJP had always put up candidates who were considered weak against her. Despite that she won by a narrow margin while defeating Kirti Azad in 1998 and later vanquished his late wife, Poonam Azad and then Vijay Jolly. The charge against the BJP was that it always chose to field weak nominees against her, thus providing her a safe passage. In fact, many analysts inferred that the saffron brigade preferred her to be in office rather than allowing the disputed leadership in their own party to take over.
This is an accusation which is difficult to establish but when Kejriwal decided to contest against her in 2013, it was clear that she would find it extremely hard to win. And she had the dubious distinction of losing while still in office and also forfeiting her security deposit. The Congress which secured 8 seats against 28 by the AAP and 32 by the BJP decided to back Kejriwal and thus committed its biggest mistake so far as the capital was concerned.
In every election after that, the Congress has failed to win any seat in either the Assembly or in Parliament and it is evident that even this time, it is just attempting to make its presence felt. Sandeep Dikshit’s candidacy is important from the sense that it would pose a difficult choice for the New Delhi voters, who include a large number of government employees.
However, it shall not be easy to vanquish Kejriwal who has carved a place for himself as one of the topmost leaders of the city by his extraordinary performances in the Assembly polls of 2015 and 2020. His plank is to redeem the prestige of his party, particularly after the scandals that saw him and some of his colleagues behind bars. The election would also determine how the people have viewed his role in the various allegations that have surfaced against him.
The Congress plan would be to win some select seats since it does not have the infrastructure to even offer a fight in most constituencies. The party would be aiming to win the seats where the minorities have a sizable presence and thus open its account after a lapse of ten years. Thus, if the party fights in all the 70 seats, it shall be only focusing on around 10 seats with the hope of winning half of them.
The BJP has an ambitious plan for Delhi as well and is hoping that its message of providing a government, which does not quarrel with the Centre and remains focused on the city’s development would click. However, its main problem is that it has yet to take a decision on whom it shall project for the CM’s position.
There is speculation that the saffron brigade can opt for a woman to lead the charge and in this context, the names of Smriti Irani, Meenakshi Lekhi and Bansuri Swaraj are doing the rounds. However, if the BJP was to allow a Poorvanchali to lead its campaign, it would pose a big problem for Kejriwal. Manoj Tewari, the East Delhi MP is one such face. Between us.