Delhi Polls: 10 seats in Delhi to witness neck to neck fight between contestants during Assembly polls,Delhi to witness neck to neck fight between contestants
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- Category: Delhi political News
- Last Updated: Saturday, 07 February 2015 14:33
Delhi Polls: 10 seats in Delhi to witness neck to neck fight between contestants during Assembly polls
Having witnessed several classic political battles in the past, the national Capital is geared up for the most keenly awaited Delhi Assembly polls.
The three main parties - the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) - are locked in a triangular contest in almost all the segments.
There are 10 seats - Patparganj, Laxmi Nagar, Malviya Nagar, Greater Kailash, Mangolpuri, Dwarka, Patel Nagar, Delhi Cantonment, Seelampur and Tilak Nagar -that will witness neck and neck contest.
As eight of these 10 belong to the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP, the party has thrown in its hat in the election ring to retain the seats to prove its might.
The BJP, on the other hand, will face a tough challenge to regain its strength in these constituencies, especially Delhi Cantonment, Tilak Nagar and Greater Kailash. For the Congress, it will be an opportunity to resurrect itself after being trounced by the BJP and the AAP in the 2013 Assembly elections. Krishna Nagar, New Delhi and Sadar Bazar are the three constituencies where chief ministerial hopefuls -Kiran Bedi of the BJP, AAP's Arvind Kejriwal - and Ajay Maken of the Congress are in the fray. Though the contest appears onesided on these three constituencies; the reputation of the three parties will be at stake and hence every vote polled will matter.
In Patparganj, AAP's Manish Sisodia is pitted against his former party colleague Vinod Kumar Binny while Congress heavyweight Rajkumar Chauhan will take on Rakhi Birla in the Congress stronghold of Mangolpuri.
Chauhan was a three-time MLA from the seat before he lost to Birla in 2013. Similarly, controversial minister in Kejriwal's 49-day government, Somnath Bharti, will be facing challenge from Congress' Yoganand Shastri in Malviya Nagar.
While the BJP has again failed to pitch a strong candidate in its one-time pocket-borough of Greater Kailash, Congress candidate Sharmistha Mukherjee is sparing no effort to win the seat from former minister Saurabh Bhardwaj of the AAP.
Sharmishtha is the daughter of President Pranab Mukherjee. Another keenly-contested battle is in Muslim-dominated Seelampur where five-time MLA Chaudhary Mateen Ahmed is up against BJP's Sanjay Jain, the lone Hindu candidate in the constituency. Banking on the division of Muslim votes and polarisation of Hindu votes, local councillor Jain may spring the biggest surprise.
In Sikh-dominated Tilak Nagar, BJP's Rajiv Babbar has locked horns with sitting AAP MLA Jarnail Singh who rose to fame after hurling a shoe at the then home minister P. Chidambaram. In Laxmi Nagar, Congress veteran A.K. Walia will try his luck against BJP's B.B. Tyagi to regain his old seat.
src:indiatoday