Other States - New Delhi   

Sheila to stick to Gole Market constituency

By Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI NOV.11 . Setting at rest all speculation about changing her Assembly constituency or contesting from two segments, the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, has decided to seek re-election from the Gole Market Assembly seat. It is learnt that Ms. Dikshit has conveyed to the party high command that she has no intentions of changing her seat and would go to the people of her constituency and seek mandate for good governance and development-oriented agenda. An official announcement to this effect is expected to be made by the party on Wednesday.

It is learnt that Ms. Dikshit would be filing her nomination papers from Gole Market on November 13 between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Contrary to speculation that Ms. Dikshit would be contesting from the Babarpur seat in East Delhi or even from two seats, the Chief Minister has made it clear that she would stick to her Gole Market constituency and take the BJP challenge head-on. She would be pitted against the BJP candidate, Poonam Azad, wife of cricketer-turned-politician Kirti Azad. In fact, Mr. Azad had represented the Gole Market constituency during 1993-98 but was defeated by Ms. Dikshit in 1998. "The Chief Minister had never indicated her intentions of changing her seat to the party high command. She had always maintained that she would be contesting from the Gole Market constituency. These rumours were floated by her rivals who wanted to create confusion within the party,'' a senior AICC leader remarked. It is learnt the party has decided to field the Leader of the House in MCD, Ram Babu Sharma, from the Babarpur constituency.

According to sources, Ms. Dikshit, after filling her nomination papers, would be devoting nearly two hours everyday for her constituency and rest of the time would be spent in canvassing support for the party candidates in different parts of the Capital. She has been getting requests from across the city for addressing meetings. However, the Chief Minister is moving cautiously and has decided to wait for the Congress high command to release the list of candidates before embarking upon a campaign programme. It is learnt that a number of individuals from the social circles and some groups have offered to canvass in Ms. Dikshit's constituency to put across the message of development and harmony.

Interestingly, Ms. Dikshit is reportedly facing resistance from her own party colleague, Ramesh Sabharwal, in the Gole Market constituency. Mr. Sabharwal has been one of the aspirants for the ticket from this seat for the past two elections. He has been instrumental in organising protests against the Chief Minister in her constituency. His wife has been in the forefront of the anti-Sheila campaign and had shared the stage with some of the Government servants who had protested against the candidature of Ms. Dikshit and pleaded the case of Mr. Sabharwal. Except for this small section opposing her, there are no voices of protest against the Chief Minister who faces an opponent who is being termed as an outsider by her own partymen.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Other States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Sheila to stick to Gole Market constituency

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu