Cong gets Northeast headache as ‘spoiler’ Iqbal moves for the hunt

While Congress’s Chandni Chowk candidate Kapil Sibal welcomed the move,backed by Lalu Yadav’s RJD and Mulayam Yadav’s Samajwadi Party,Iqbal could be a force to reckon with in Northeast Delhi,which has the largest number of Muslim voters in Delhi’s seven constituencies after delimitation.

“The party has made the decision. Northeast Delhi is a better constituency (for LJP) because there is a sizeable minority population there,” Iqbal told Newsline. “This was the public’s demand from the area — they wanted me there.”

He said the party would find another Muslim candidate for the Chandni Chowk seat.

The Congress,yet to finalise a candidate for the seat after Jagdish Tytler’s exit from the arena,is expected to have a tough battle on its hands. For,Northeast Delhi has a population break-up that could go against the party: 20 per cent each Muslim,Brahmin,Scheduled Caste (SC) and OBC voters. While the Congress commanded these votes earlier,they are likely to go to the LJP-RJD-SP combine and the Bahujan Samaj Party’s Haji Dilshad Ali,who has the added advantage of being a local.

Congress insiders said at worst,these candidates could play spoilers for the party,taking away its votes. Bharatiya Janata Party leaders are also expecting Iqbal and Haji Dilshad to cut into Congress votes between themselves and help its candidate,B L Sharma ‘Prem’,in the process.

Sources in the Congress say the party’s Delhi unit president,J P Aggarwal,is frontrunner for the Northeast Delhi seat. Agarwal had won the 1989 Lok Sabha polls from Chandni Chowk.

Iqbal said he and several other LJP leaders would be in Patna on Thursday to discuss Delhi elections with party chief with Ram Vilas Paswan. The LJP,supported by SP and RJD,is contesting five out of seven seats in the Capital.

He had incidentally withdrawn from the Chandni Chowk constituency at the last moment in 2004 in favour of Kapil Sibal.