Congress fields ex-CM Sheila Dikshit from North-East Delhi, Ajay Maken from New Delhi
New Delhi: Ending months of speculation over a possible tie-up with AAP, the Congress on Monday fielded three-time Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit from North-East Delhi and former Union minister Ajay Maken from New Delhi, as it announced names of candidates for six Lok Sabha seats in the national capital.
The Congress also fielded J P Agarwal from Chandni Chowk, Arvinder Singh Lovely from East Delhi, Rajesh Lilothia from North-West Delhi and Mahabal Mishra from West Delhi.
Dikshit, who took over from Maken as the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee chief earlier this year, was last a member of Parliament from 1984-89 from Kannauj. She was the chief minister of Delhi for three terms between 1998 and 2013.
Dikshit will take on BJP's sitting MP Manoj Tiwari and Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Dilip Pandey.
Interestingly, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal has not been named from the Chandni Chowk seat from which he has been fighting from since 2004. After two terms, Sibal had lost to Union minister Harsh Vardhan in 2014.
Sibal had said last month that he will "certainly contest" from Delhi's Chandni Chowk seat in the Lok Sabha, irrespective of whether there is an alliance between his party and AAP.
Another interesting pick by the Congress is former DCC chief Lovely from East Delhi where he will take on AAP's Atishi. The BJP is yet to declare its candidate from the seat.
Lovely has held important portfolios such as a minister in Delhi. He had briefly joined the BJP, but returned to the Congress fold in 2018.
The Congress is yet to announce its candidate for the South Delhi seat. In the 2014 national election, the BJP won all seven seats in Delhi.
Talks for an alliance between the Congress and AAP broke down over AAP's insistence that the grand old party should agree to share seats in Haryana, Chandigarh and Punjab apart from Delhi.
The AAP has already named its seven candidates in the national capital and party's West Delhi candidate Balbir Singh Jakhar had also filed his nomination papers on Thursday.
The other six candidates who are expected to file their nominations soon are Chandni Chowk candidate Pankaj Gupta, East Delhi candidate Atishi, North West Delhi candidate Gugan Singh, South Delhi candidate Raghav Chadha, North East candidate Pandey and New Delhi candidate Brajesh Goel.
The BJP on Sunday fielded its four sitting MPs from Delhi -- Harsh Vardhan from Chandni Chowk, Manoj Tiwari from North-east Delhi, Pravesh Verma from West Delhi and Ramesh Bidhuri from South Delhi.
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TN Assembly elections: Eight-month pregnant homemaker wins Thiru Vi Ka Nagar seat for TVK
Chennai (PTI): Before giving birth, she had already delivered a mandate—a symbol of hope for Thiru Vi Ka Nagar.
Echoing Delhi’s 2013 “common citizen” political churn associated with the rise of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), an eight-month-pregnant homemaker, M R Pallavi, has been elected as an MLA from Chennai’s Thiru Vi Ka Nagar constituency, emerging as one of the notable first-time faces of the Vijay-led TVK in the recently held Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.
In the narrow lanes of Thiru Vi Ka Nagar, a steady stream of media personnel has been making their way to Pallavi’s residence—a scene reminiscent of the result day in Delhi when journalists thronged the modest home of Rakhi Birla, who had won from Mangolpuri on an AAP ticket.
Pallavi, 36, a homemaker educated up to class XII, defeated the DMK candidate K S Ravichandran by a margin of 22,333 votes in the reserved Thiru Vi Ka Nagar Assembly constituency.
Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam emerged as the single largest party by winning 108 seats, while DMK and AIADMK got 59 and 47, respectively.
Pallavi’s victory has drawn attention due to her personal circumstances. She campaigned extensively while eight months pregnant, going door-to-door to reach voters.
According to local accounts, she even fainted once during the campaign but continued her outreach.
She has not spoken to the media following her victory, as doctors have advised her to rest. Her husband, Rajesh, briefly recounted her campaign efforts.
A self-professed admirer of actor-turned-politician Vijay, Pallavi joined TVK soon after its formation and is now among its first-time legislators.
Doctors have advised her to be hospitalised around May 20, as she is expecting her second child. Ahead of that, voters in Thiru Vi Ka Nagar have entrusted her with representing them in the state Assembly.
Political observers say the rise of candidates like Pallavi signals a possible shift in Tamil Nadu’s political landscape, with voters backing a new party and candidates from non-traditional backgrounds.
