Sheila Dikshit emerges stronger as Congress puts up strong face...

NEW DELHI: A day before the last date of filing nominations, internal politics in Congress delayed the announcement of the name of its candidate for South Delhi. A final announcement on ace boxer Vijender Singh’s name was made late on Monday.
Sources said the party got divided into two groups — one supporting former Delhi assembly speaker Yoganand Shastri and another that opposed his candidature.While Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit wanted Shastri to contest the seat that has a substantial number of Jat and rural voters, former party heavyweight Sajjan Kumar’s supporters opposed his name.
Sajjan’s brother Ramesh Kumar was elected from South Delhi in 2009, but fared poorly in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections behind BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri and Devinder Sehrawat of AAP. With Sajjan, who enjoyed a huge support among Jat and rural voters and was instrumental behind his brother’s 2009 victory, convicted in a 1984 anti-Sikh riot case, those close to him said they won’t campaign for Congress if Shastri is given the ticket.
Sources said Congress got senior Haryana leader Bhupender Singh Hooda to mediate between the two groups to reach a consensus. “Initially, the party wanted Olympic medalist wrestler Sushil Kumar to contest, but he opted out. Hooda then proposed the name of ace boxer Vijender Singh,” said a source.
Apart from being a youth icon, Singh also belongs to the Jat community, which dominates the South Delhi constituency.
Congress, however, played a strategic game by putting up a formidable team of leaders to contest on the remaining six teams. “The party has put up its best possible team by fielding Dikshit, working president Rajesh Lilothia and three former DPCC chiefs — Ajay Maken, Arvinder Singh Lovely and Jai Prakash Agarwal,” said Delhi Congress campaign committee chief Subhash Chopra.
Both Maken and Lovely were in favour of an alliance with AAP and had made their views clear to Congress president Rahul Gandhi, but Dikshit and Lilothia were against it. While Maken has been a two-time MP from New Delhi and served in both UPA-I and II governments, Lovely enjoys good support in East Delhi and is a prominent Sikh face. Lovely has won four consecutive elections to Delhi assembly and held several portfolios in the Congress government.
The party also got its caste combination right with the candidates. Though former West Delhi MP Mahabal Mishra was initially ignored, sources said the absence of a Poorvanchali leader would have had an adverse impact on several seats.
“With a large population of Poorvanchalis in North East, East, North West, South and West Delhi constituencies, a Poorvanchali leader was unavoidable. Though the leadership initially decided against fielding Mishra, there was a long discussion late on Sunday and Monday morning between the central leadership and Delhi unit leaders before his name was cleared,” said a senior party functionary.
Congress also named working president Rajesh Lilothia from the reserved constituency of North West Delhi. Sources said the constituency is dominated by the Balmiki community, while former Delhi minister Rajkumar Chauhan, who was initially shortlisted, belonged to Khatik community.