NEW DELHI: The conquest of Delhi is a herculean task for any single party. With around 923-odd candidates in the fray for 70 seats, the three top-job hopefuls—the BJP’s CM face Kiran Bedi, AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal and Congress party’s Ajay Maken—will be facing on an average 20 candidates in their respective constituencies.
On the assets front, the ideology has changed little—the rich got richer and the poor poorer. Of all the candidates in the fray, the richest is Shiromani Akali Dal’s Manjinder Singh Sirsa, contesting from Rajouri Garden. He has maintained his Numero Uno position on the Rich List. Sirsa’s total accumulated declared assets amount to Rs 239 crore, an increase of Rs 3.8 crore since the last election held in 2013. He has stated his profession as ‘agriculturist’ and is a real estate owner with a passion for luxury cars; he owns a Bentley, a Mercedes SUV and a Land Rover, among others. However, Sirsa has nine cases registered against him. The poorest candidate in this election is AAP leader Rakhi Birla, who faces Congress bigwig and former minister Raj Kumar Chauhan in Mangolpuri. Her assets have declined from Rs 51,150 to Rs 18,500 in the 2013 assembly polls. Chauhan’s total assets are Rs 9.1 crore—4,900 per cent more than Birla’s. The second richest on the list is BJP’s Sat Prakash Rana, contesting from Bijwasan, who has declared total assets worth Rs 78 crore. In 2013 polls, it was Rs 33 crore. His rival and AAP candidate Devendra Sehrawat is also a “crorepati” with assets totaling Rs 2.2 crore. Sherawat is an MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad. The third richest candidate in the Delhi polls is Devendra Yadav. The Congress candidate in Badli is worth Rs 29 crore, up by Rs 3 crore since 2013. He has dethroned Dharm Dev Solanki of the BJP who finished third in the last face-off but is the fourth richest candidate with Rs 27 crore. The fifth richest candidate is Prahlad Singh Sawhney of the Congress who is contesting from Chandni Chowk again—his total assets have declined from Rs 25 crore to Rs 22 crore.
Delhi’s CM candidates face a fracas of plenty. Arvind Kejriwal will face 22 candidates in New Delhi. Former Congress minister Kiran Walia and BJP’s young modern face Nupur Sharma are contesting against the AAP chief, along with independents and candidates from smaller parties like Vishva Shakti Party, Nationalist Congress Party, Jan Shakti Ekta Party, Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha and Bharat Bhrashtachar Mitao party. Fifteen candidates are standing against Maken and 13 are taking on Bedi. Against Maken, BJP’s Praveen Jain and AAP’s Som Dutt are two strong candidates while others are Independents and from smaller parties. Similarly, against Bedi, AAP’s SK Bagga and Congress’s Bansi Lal are working day and night to win the seats.
The Delhi Election Office states that the total number of nominations filed was 1,404 in which over 250 are Independents. Some of them have even filed more than one nomination. After New Delhi constituencies which has 23 candidates, 22 have filed their nominations from Burari, followed by Nangloi (21 candidates), Sangam Vihar (19), Matia Mahal (19). Only six candidates have filed their nomination papers for the Ambedkar Nagar seat.
The Most Qualified
AAP has the most educated candidates of the big three parties. Kejriwal is a graduate from IIT-Kharagpur and Manish Sisodia has a diploma in journalism. Taking on the Congress candidate and President Pranab Mukerjee’s daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee is one of AAP’s richest and most qualified candidates; Saurabh Bhardwaj has a BTech from Delhi University and LLB from Osmania University, Hyderabad. Adarsh Shastri, grandson of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, was the sales head of Apple India. Former Congress leader-turned-AAP candidate Alka Lamba has done her BSc from Delhi University and MSc from Bundelkhand University. Devendra Sehrawat of the AAP has done MSc and has a degree in Business Management from IIM-Ahmadabad.
The BJP’s Kiran Bedi holds a PhD from IIT-Delhi while her party colleague Rajni Abbi is a part-time lecturer in Delhi University, and has done BA (Honours), LLB, LLM from Delhi University. Similarly, the saffron party’s Nupur Sharma is an advocate who has a Masters in Law from London School of Economics and S C Vats has an MBBS degree.
In the Congress, Maken is a MA in Public Administration from Himachal University. Kiran Walia has a MA degree in Political Science from Delhi University. AK Walia is a doctor and Sharmistha Mukherjee has an MA in sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Repeat Contestants
BJP and AAP have the maximum numbers of new faces in the fray. Both have repeated 35 candidates of the total 70, with 35 new and young faces this time. AAP chose its representatives after conducting an internal survey in each constituency. In BJP, winnability was responsible in awarding tickets to new faces like Nupur Sharma from New Delhi, Yogendra Chandolia from Karol Bagh, Gopal Jha from Burari and Sarita Chudhary from Mehrauli. The Congress has introduced only 10 new faces. “Tickets have been given to old leaders and they are fighting for their identity and existence. Its ‘do or die’ for them,” Ajay Maken told The Sunday Standard.
Minority Moment
There are only 12 minority faces this time in all parties. While AAP has given tickets to five minority candidates, the Congress and BJP have chosen six and one minority contestants respectively. In AAP, Haji Yunus is from Mustafabad, Haji Ishraq from Seelampur, Imran Hussain from Ballimaran, Amanatullah Khan from Okhla and Asim Ahmed Khan from Matia Mahal. In Congress, Haroon Yusuf contests from Ballimaran, Chaudhary Mateen Ahmed from Seelampur, Zakir Khan from Babarpur, Hasan Ahmed from Mustafabad, Asif Mohammad from Okhla and Shoaib Iqbal from Matia Mahal. The lone Muslim face of BJP is Shakeel Anjum Delhlvi from Matia Mahal.
Crime Concern
Till January 22, 122 FIRs have been lodged against various political parties for violating the Model Code of Conduct. The maximum cases are against Aam Aadmi Party (54) followed by Congress (26) and BJP (24). Interestingly, 10 cases are registered against the BSP and one against RJD.
Vishwas is Back
AAP leader Kumar Vishwas, a close friend of party colleague Manish Sisodia, has finally agreed to campaign for the party. Vishwas’s first rally was in Sisodia’s constituency. After losing Lok Sabha polls against Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, Vishwas was unhappy with the party and its chief Arvind Kejriwal. He distanced himself from all the party works for almost six months. Despite being called by various party leaders to start campaigning for Delhi polls, he ignored them. Seeing this, Sisodia chalked out a scheme to win him back. He organised a launch for all senior party leaders. They clicked pictures of each other while having a good time there. When media and volunteers started questioning about Vishwas, Sisodia circulated the pictures of Vishwas standing with other leaders, including Kejriwal, on social networking sites and cited that he is with them.
Lovely Embarrassment
The day Delhi Assembly was dissolved, Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely asked a survey company to find the mood of his constituency, Gandhi Nagar. The survey found that if he fought election he would be at third position and AAP was gaining ground. By the time he came to know, the first Congress list was prepared. He told Congress leader Ahmed Patel that he would not contest polls and would take charge of campaigning across 70 seats and help his team members. However, Patel was out of Delhi and the list was with Delhi unit in-charge P C Chacko. When Chacko got instructions from Congress President Sonia Gandhi to release the list, he complied. Interestingly, Lovely’s name was there and he was asked to contest polls. Later, when Patel returned, Lovely requested his name be dropped. Surender Prakash Sharma, an associate of Lovely, was given the ticket.
AAP on Auto Correct Mode
After ridiculing several BJP candidates, including Jagdish Mukhi, by comparing them with their CM contender Arvind Kejriwal, AAP has now targetted BJP’s CM face Kiran Bedi. New posters are put on auto-rickshaws asking people who is better choice as chief minister: Kejriwal the ‘honest politician’ or Bedi the ‘opportunist’?
Selfie with Modi
Parties are looking at newer ways to engage with the young voters. BJP on Saturday launched a new feature—Selfie With Modi. Cutouts of Narendra Modi will be put in different parts of the city, particularly those visited by youngsters, where they will be encouraged to click their photos with Modi. The feature was launched in the capital’s tony Khan Market. BJP had launched the feature in Jammu during the J&K elections. Earlier AAP had launched Selfie with Arvind, where people were charged for getting their pictures taken with Kejriwal. This was done to raise funds for the party.