In the heart of the national capital, the New Delhi assembly seat lives up to its high-profile tag with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief and former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal locking horns with two former chief minister’s sons: Sandeep Dixit. Parvesh Verma, son of Sheila Dixit of Congress and son of Sahib Singh Verma.
Aam Aadmi Party nominated Kejriwal on Sunday Final list of candidates for election. While the Congress has named Dixit as its candidate from the constituency, the BJP’s list is not yet out but Verma is understood to have received the green light from the party leadership for his candidature.
The New Delhi constituency is a seat of power in more ways than one as it is the seat of Parliament and the central government, including foreign missions and international organizations, and has sent many CMs to the assembly. While the New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency is one of the oldest and has been in existence since 1951, the assembly seat was carved out during the 2008 delimitation.
Sources in AAP said the party will soon launch a constituency-specific campaign – its theme in the New Delhi seat.CM’s son and one from Delhi (Sons of two Chief Ministers vs son of Delhi)” – Kejriwal himself is set to contest 70 assembly seats soon.
Sources said Kejriwal had ensured a connection with his electorate by keeping the weekend “reserved for his constituency”. “During the week, he is a former Delhi chief minister and AAP convener. But in the context of New Delhi, he becomes an MLA who has a strong connection with the voters. He listens to them on weekends while his family and MLA representatives fill the void during weekdays,” said an AAP insider.
Sources said Kejriwal attends events like birthdays, weddings, and local sports competitions in the constituency whenever possible. “Since he was first elected in 2013, he says, ‘Inhone he won me (These people won me over),’ said the source, adding that Kejriwal’s local campaign will pick up speed soon.
Since 2013, Kejriwal has maintained a strong grip on the seat. On his debut, he won 54% of the votes to defeat Sheila Dixit and two years later he won 64% against Congress’s Kiran Walia and BJP’s Nupur Sharma. In 2020, his vote share dropped marginally to 61%.
The New Delhi Assembly seat also includes parts of the erstwhile South Delhi Lok Sabha seat, from which BJP’s Sushma Swaraj was first elected in 1996. Two years later, she became the first woman CM of Delhi for a period of 50 days before losing. Dixit, who held the seat from 1998 to 2013, lost to Kejriwal.
Despite the “Kejriwal factor”, sources in the BJP and Congress claimed that it would be “a mistake to see Sandeep and Pravesh only as MLA candidates”, though they stressed that decisions on their potentially bigger roles would be taken only after the election results.
A senior Congress leader said that Sandeep Dixit was the CM face of the party. “Having served two consecutive terms in the Lok Sabha and given his legacy as Mrs Dixit’s son, it would be wrong to assume that he is contesting just to become an MLA. He is in the fray to become the Chief Minister,” the leader said, sources said. Despite repeating that “such decisions were the prerogative of the top brass”.
The path to the chief ministership could be tough for Sandeep, who has been in political oblivion since AAP’s maiden victory in 2013. He has consistently targeted the AAP arrangement, particularly the potential negative effects of the now defunct Response Unit (FBU). A body that functioned for a few months after AAP’s 2015 victory, but was one of the top leaders who participated. At the Bharat Bloc rally at Ramlila Maidan in April. He also visited Kejriwal’s residence after the former chief minister was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an alleged excise scam case.
On the other hand, Parvesh Verma was denied a Lok Sabha ticket by the BJP but is understood to have received “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s blessing” to fight against Kejriwal and Sandeep Dixit. BJP has not released the list of candidates for the election.
“Earlier this month, the Prime Minister himself reportedly spoke to Parvesh over the phone and asked him to be ready to remove Kejriwal. On Saturday, he told the media that he has been told to be ready to contest from New Delhi even though the party is yet to officially announce a candidate,” a BJP source said.
Sources claimed that after receiving the call, Parvesh not only visited the constituency but also did extensive campaigning. “Modi and (Union Home Minister) Amit Shah see him as a possible face of the campaign but his potentially bigger role will only become clear in the coming days,” the BJP leader said.
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