Cong woes increase as more names join the race for LS seats

THE UNEXPECTED arrest of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the convener and face of its INDIA bloc ally, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), has thrown the Congress’s Lok Sabha candidate selection procedure for the Capital into disarray, according to Congress sources.

So much so, as per sources, that the final call on the three candidates it would field in Delhi was stalled on the brink of finalisation — an announcement to this effect was postponed, minutes before it was scheduled, after the party’s Central Election Committee Friday. The Congress is contesting three seats and AAP four in Delhi.

“The party high command had mostly made up its mind before one additional name for the Chandni Chowk and Northeast Delhi seats was conveyed for consideration. Public perception surveys will now be carried out on both seats to make the final decision,” a senior leader said.

Sources said a positive tilt in public sentiment towards the Aap-congress combine following Kejriwal’s arrest in the liquor policy case, as per internal surveys, has reintroduced senior leaders from “across the party” in the race for the three seats.

In addition to incumbent Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely, these leaders include former JNUSU president and current All India Congress Committee in-charge for the NSUI, Kanhaiya Kumar. “Many senior leaders from Delhi had thrown their hat in the ring before the alliance before choosing to withdraw for their own reasons; Kanhaiya’s name, for instance, was first floated as a probable from West Delhi when there was no alliance,” said another party leader.

“After Kejriwal was arrested, surveys began showing that public sentiment and support were shifting towards the Aapcongress combine; leaders who had opted out realised they had a chance and became interested again,” the leader added.

Party sources said while former BJP MP Udit Raj was leading the race for a ticket from Northwest Delhi, the other probables included Lovely and Kanhaiya from the Northeast in addition to Sandeep Dikshit as well as Jai Prakash Aggarwal from Chandni Chowk.

Sources said the state unit survey showed that the Aapcongress combine had an edge in Northeast Delhi. The screening committee, which assessed the winnability of candidates in different Parliamentary segments, “suggested that Lovely contest” from here, while the Congress high command was “in favour of launching Kanhaiya”.

“Kanhaiya is a serious contender. The party is looking at him as a Purvanchali leader to be cultivated in the capital but has decided to get a public survey done to assess whom to field from Northeast and Chandni Chowk. Its result will need to be in before the notification for the sixth phase in which Delhi goes to polls is issued,” another leader said.

DPCC chief Lovely and (R) AICC in-charge of NSUI Kanhaiya Kumar are believed to be in running