The Hindu : Congress likely to decide candidates for Capital next week

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 18, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Congress likely to decide candidates for Capital next week

By Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI, MARCH 17. As the selection process for the Lok Sabha candidates gains momentum in the All India Congress Committee (AICC), the picture for the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi is likely to become clear only by this month-end. In an interesting development, a large number of MLAs and the representatives of the Akhil Bharatiya Brahmin Samaj met the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, yesterday and urged her to field her son, Sandeep Dikshit, from the East Delhi Parliamentary seat.

They pointed out that only a strong Brahmin candidate can defeat the sitting Bharatiya Janata Party candidate, Lal Bihari Tiwari. In fact, some of them are believed to have stated that Mr. Dikshit would be the right choice as he has the name of the veteran Congressman, Uma Shankar Dikshit, and the backing of Ms. Dikshit. A large number of representatives of the All India Brahmin Samaj who met the Chief Minister asked her to field Mr. Dikshit from East Delhi. They also said if the party did not field Mr. Dikshit then it should opt for the Babbarpur MLA, Vinay Sharma.

However, the Chief Minister has not made up her mind and is still weighing the pros and cons. This development is expected to change the entire political equations in East Delhi constituency. ``Mr. Sandeep Dikshit is a strong candidate. The association of this family with the party and the people coupled with the stature of the Chief Minister would ensure that he wins by a thumping margin if he contests from East Delhi,'' remarked Mr. Sharma, a Brahmin and himself a strong contender for the party ticket from the same seat.

Meanwhile, it is understood that the Screening Committee of Delhi is going to meet next week to finalise the names of the candidates for the seven Lok Sabha seats. It would then forward its viewpoint to the Central Election Committee headed by the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, for final approval.

However, the party is caught in a fix with regard to distribution of party tickets between the party veterans and new aspirants including the Youth Congress workers who have laid their claim on some seats this time. It is also not clear if the Congress high command would follow the criteria of denying party nomination to those who have lost on more than three occasions from the same seat.

If the party decides to repose its faith in the veterans in these crucial polls, then the former Outer Delhi Member of Parliament, Sajjan Kumar, and the former Union Minister, Jagdish Tytler, could well be the favourites to contest from Outer Delhi and Sadar constituencies. It is also not clear if the party would give tickets to the sitting MLAs who have virtually staked claim on almost all the seven Parliamentary seats.

It is learnt the party is still toying with the idea of fielding an outsider from some of the seats including East Delhi and New Delhi. In fact, whenever the party has fielded an outsider in these seats, it has fared badly but till date it has failed to learn from the past mistakes. In fact, there is talk of fielding the Rajya Sabha member, Karan Singh, from the Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha seat.

However, this nomination could run into rough weather and face opposition from local Congressmen who are of the view that it would not be possible for Dr. Singh to cover the hazardous constituency in view of internal sabotage.

The field is also wide open with regard to the New Delhi constituency where the senior Congress leader, R. K. Dhawan, is reluctant to contest. The names of sitting MLA, Tajdar Babar, eminent lawyer, R.K. Anand and AICC secretary, Praveen Dawar, are in the running for this seat.

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