Delhi elections: Meet Arvind Kejriwal’s rivals in New Delhi constituency

He will be looking to make a return to the state Assembly from this constituency.

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File photo of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal

On February 7 as Delhi goes to vote, Arvind Kejriwal, chief of the Aam Aadmi Party, will be looking to make a second attempt to return to the state Assembly from the high-profile New Delhi Assembly constituency. A seat nurtured for years by Congress leader and three-time chief minister Sheila Dikshit, it was won by the Aam Aadmi Party in the 2013 elections. The margin of Kejriwal’s then victory over Dikshit was a staggering 25,000 votes indicating the solid support of middle-class residents and government officials who form a major chunk of the seat’s voter base.

While Kejriwal’s ‘running away’ from power gamble may have created an erosion in his voter support base, we take a look at the two main rivals he faces and whether they pose any serious challenge to his candidature.

Kiran Walia, Congress: A former minister of education, women and child development in the Dikshit government, Kiran Walia has been parachuted by the Congress party to take on the Kejriwal challenge in New Delhi assembly constituency. The party hopes that her work as a state minister is still remembered in the minds of voters, especially government officials, and that she would be representative of the Congress’s 15 years in power under the leadership of Dikshit. A win in this constituency would greatly boost Congress’s image in the national capital, after its agonising loss in the 2013 elections when it was reduced to just 8 seats. Walia was in the news recently for asking the Election Commission (EC) to cancel Kejriwal’s affidavit after she alleged that he failed to include details of an FIR against him, thus amounting to concealment of facts. However, Kejriwal’s affidavit was accepted by the EC.

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Kiran Walia, arriving to file her nomination papers from New Delhi constituency.

Nupur Sharma, BJP: Contesting against strong heavyweight candidates is sometimes the hallmark of little-known leaders getting hoisted onto the national stage. The case of Nupur Sharma, the BJP’s official candidate against Kejriwal, is somewhat like that. A former president of Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) and a graduate of London School of Economics, Nupur, 30, was a member of the ABVP (BJP’s youth wing). While Sharma has contested elections before (not on this scale though!), she is considered a light-weight challenger to Kejriwal. However, she is confident about her victory. “I am definitely not a scapegoat. I’m sorry but I’m a woman, an advocate, actually very well read. I have fought an election before. I know how it is,” she told a television channel.

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BJP candidate Nupur Sharma comes out after filing her nomination papers in New Delhi on Wednesday. (Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

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