Congress picks Sajjan’s brother for South Delhi,JP for Northeast

The Congress had asked both Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler to withdraw their candidature last week after protests by Sikh groups in the Capital due to the duo’s alleged involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Aggarwal was the frontrunner for Northeast Delhi from the beginning but the Congress had been dragging its feet over finalising the candidate for South Delhi. The party was first toying with the idea of nominating Mehrauli MLA and Delhi Assembly Speaker Yoganand Shastri to replace Kumar and safeguard the 80,000-strong Jat votes in the constituency.

With BJP nominating Gurjjar MLA Ramesh Bidhuri from the constituency,with an equal and polarised Jat-Gurjjar vote spread across,the Congress was keen on putting up a Jat leader. The party delayed the decision as Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit was seen as backing Shastri,while Kumar (64) put up pressure by first lobbying for his son Jagpavesh and later for his younger brother.

Congress sources said given the sizeable Jat population in neighbouring Northwest Delhi (17 per cent) and Northeast Delhi (3 per cent),the party was worried that an angry Sajjan could act a spoiler in those constituencies as well.

Ramesh Kumar is known to be a close Sajjan aide and was spotted at several public meetings addressed by him before the recent Sikh protests.

Re-shaped after delimitation,South Delhi has nine rural seats from Kumar’s former Outer Delhi constituency and one urban Assembly seat from the New Delhi parliamentary constituency. Besides Jats and Gurjjars,the constituency also has a sizeable mix of OBC and Poorvanchali voters residing in unathorised colonies.

In Northeast Delhi,meanwhile,the Congress is banking on the 22-per cent Muslim vote besides the 20 per cent strong OBC electorate. With Lok Janshakti Party leader Shoaib Iqbal threatening to act as a spoiler along with the BSP,Aggarwal is expected to give an edge to the Congress by mobilising the votes of the trader community (Bania).