The Hindu : New Delhi News : Sweet revenge for Sandeep, Sajjan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 14, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Sweet revenge for Sandeep, Sajjan

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MAY 13. The rout of the Bharatiya Janata Party in six of the seven Lok Sabha seats from Delhi has been a tale of sweet revenge and proxy battle for some of the Congress candidates. Many of the youngsters turned out to be giant killers as the Congress came up with one of the best performances under the stewardship of the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit.

In the "40 versus 80" battle in the New Delhi constituency that had the Union Culture and Tourism Minister, Jagmohan, running for cover, the Congress candidate, Ajay Maken, ensured that youth prevailed. Having been written off by his opponents within and outside the party, he came in strongly from behind to humble Mr. Jagmohan proving once again his ability to deal with difficult situations. "I have great respect for Mr. Jagmohan but I had fought on issues like more representation to the youth and problems of the Government employees. It is a victory of the leadership of the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, Ms. Dikshit and the party workers," he remarked after being declared elected in his second attempt at entering the Lok Sabha.

In the East Delhi parliamentary constituency, the Congress candidate, Sandeep Dikshit, overcoming internal sabotage, avenged the defeat of his mother at the hands of his rival, Lal Bihari Tiwari of the BJP. Mr. Tiwari had defeated Ms. Dikshit in 1996 Lok Sabha polls by over 44,000 votes due to sabotage by her own partymen who had termed her as an outsider. "I am happy to make my political debut in Parliament. It is nice to have defeated somebody who has won four times in the past. The victory margin is also the highest in Delhi and I thank the people of East Delhi and party workers for giving me this opportunity and I hope to serve them well," Mr. Dikshit said.

In the Delhi Sadar parliamentary seat, the Congress candidate avenged his 1996 defeat at the hands of the BJP candidate, Vijay Goel, defeating him by a convincing margin of 15,974. Mr. Tytler had lost to Mr. Goel in 1996 by a margin of around 1,600 votes and this time he has turned the tables on his opponent.

"The people of Sadar have rejected the politics of dirt and bribe. They have given a rebuff to the unethical ways of Mr. Goel and showed that money and muscle power is not above the people's power," Mr. Tytler said. The Outer Delhi candidate, Sajjan Kumar, who won by a big margin, said his rival, Sahib Singh Verma, had paid for the neglect of his constituency.

"His arrogance and corrupt ways had not gone down well with the people and they have shown him where he stands. The politics of deceit and misleading propaganda has proved to be his undoing. The victory under the leadership of the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, has been remarkable," remarked Mr. Kumar who last won an election in 1991.

For the Karol Bagh (SC) Congress candidate, Krishna Tirath, the victory has come as a sort of consolation. Ms. Tirath had contested in 1991 but lost by a convincing margin. However, this time round she won by a big margin of 37,623 votes defeating her BJP rival Anita Arya. "I attribute my defeat to the work done by the Sheila Dikshit Government in Delhi and the leadership of Ms. Gandhi at the Centre. I will work to raise the issues concerning my constituency in Parliament."

The lone BJP winner from South Delhi, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, said he was happy over his victory but saddened by the results in other seats of the Capital. "I will surely go back home and celebrate and catch up with my wife and children whom I have not met for a long time," he added. Mr. Malhotra defeated R.K. Anand of Congress who it is understood to have faced internal sabotage at the hands of his close political advisors.

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