In her latest battle, she draws hope from three-time stint as CM

NEW DELHI: Shortly after her

nomination

to

contest

the

Lok Sabha elections

from

northeast Delhi constituency

, Delhi Pradesh Congress chief Sheila Dikshit said she is

ready

for the

challenge

to straddle the two “critical” roles for her party.

As the national capital is headed for a triangular contest after Congress and AAP failed to strike an alliance, the three-time Delhi chief minister finds herself preparing for a fresh battle from northeast parliamentary constituency which happened to be the turf of former state Congress chief and two-time MP J P Agarwal who is being fielded from Chandni Chowk.

BJP had swept the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in Delhi, winning all the seven seats.

Earlier there was talk of Dikshit contesting from east Delhi which has been represented by her son Sandeep Dikshit. And therafter there were murmurs of her being fielded from Chandni Chowk. The final decision to put her up in northeast Delhi is seen to be strategic. With a significant minority vote-bank, Congress finds northeast a safer bet for Dikshit than east Delhi. Besides there a large chunk of Dalits, migrants and low-income families in unauthorised colonies, Congress’ traditional electoral constituency where the party wishes to recover lost ground. The party feels Dikshit’s three terms as CM could come in handy to garner support.

On her nomination by the party, the 81-year-old former CM said, "The party has decided to field me. If I was asked on whether I was keen to contest, I would have said no, but they want me to contest and I will give it my best." Dikshit was initially reluctant to contest, as reported by TOI earlier, but Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s is learnt to have impressed upon her to join the electoral battle.

Dikshit admitted it will be a new political theatre, but exuded confidence “as people know me. I will go into the fight with full confidence”.

After losing the Delhi assembly polls in 2013, she was virtually relegated to the fringes before the party reposed faith in Diskhit and appointed her as DPCC chief in January.

She was one of the most vocal opponents of any alliance with AAP, saying it was “not reliable”. “All along, I felt we did not need to do it. We are a big enough party with a good track record to go on our own,” she said about the ‘to and fro’ talks between the two parties, which went on for weeks.

After the alliance failed, she said, “They (AAP) keep changing their mind. It is their culture, but not ours."