With fielding Sandeep Dikshit, Congress has sent a clear message ahead of Delhi assembly elections, that it wants to reclaim the legacy of its stalwart leader Sheila Dikshit.
This move shows the seriousness of the party to reclaim power in the national capital.
Now, former MP Sandeep Dikshit is set to contest the assembly elections from the New Delhi, a constituency represented by his mother. He has been pitted against Arvind Kejriwal, which seems to be battle set for reclaiming the legacy of former CM who had been accused of corruption by the AAP chief regularly.
“I am happy to contest from New Delhi. It is not about revenge from AAP but to reclaim the development model of Delhi that was evolved under Sheila ji,” Sandeep Dikshit said.
In 2013, Aam Aadmi Party led by Arvind Kejriwal defeated Sheila Dikshit to become the chief minister of Delhi.
For Sandeep, and the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, the fight is personal. The Congress is now likely to point out the flawed way that Kejriwal targeted the tallest leader in Delhi, Sheila Dikshit.
It must be pointed out that the massive public outrage fuelled by Kejriwal’s movement had almost derailed the political careers of several of Sheila Dikshit’s proteges including Ajay Maken, Arwinder Singh Lovely, Raj Kumar Chauhan and Sandeep.
Congress yesterday released a list of 21 candidates who will contest the assembly elections in Delhi.
Former Delhi minister Haroon Yusuf will contest from Ballimaran, while former Delhi Congress president Chaudhary Anil Kumar will take on AAP’s Awadh Ojha in Patparganj. National spokesperson Ragini Nayak has been nominated from Wazirpur, and Adarsh Shastri will represent party in Dwarka.
Other candidates include Ali Mehndi from Mustafabad, Rohit Chaudhry from Nangloi Jat, and Praveen Jain from Shalimar Bagh.
The candidate list was finalized during a meeting of the Congress Central Election Committee (CEC), chaired by party president Mallikarjun Kharge. Senior leaders, including former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Ambika Soni, Salman Khurshid, TS Singh Deo, and Mukul Wasnik, participated in the deliberations. Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav was also present at the meeting who is contesting polls from Badli constituency.
“All categories are taken care of in our list. You will also get to see young faces im the list. I am happy that our leadership has talked and discussed with everyone,” Yadav said.
The Delhi Assembly polls are due to be held in February 2025.
