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Journalism of Courage
New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency: The New Delhi Lok Sabha seat was bagged by a woman candidate after a gap of 54 years when in 2014, BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi became the Member of Parliament from this seat. Lekhi, who again won the New Delhi seat with a huge margin in 2019, has been denied a ticket in 2024. The BJP has replaced Lekhi with former union minister Late Sushma Swaraj’s daughter Bansuri Swaraj.
The Aam Aadmi Party has fielded their MLA Somnath Bharti from this seat making the fight more interesting as both the candidates are lawyers by profession.
Among the most unexpected entrants in the BJP’s first list of Lok Sabha nominees was Bansuri Swaraj, the 40-year-old daughter of Sushma Swaraj, for whom the late BJP leader was known to leave meetings at times, to rush to be at the bus stop when she came back from school.
The choice of Bansuri has taken many by surprise, including those in the BJP, not just because she is a virtual newcomer to politics, but also because the BJP top brass has picked a newbie for the high-profile New Delhi seat. This, despite Sushma being a protege of L K Advani, who had opposed Narendra Modi’s projection as the party’s prime ministerial candidate in 2014.
Bansuri entered politics with her appointment as co-convenor of the Delhi BJP’s legal department in March 2023.
She enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi in 2007 and has 16 years of experience in the legal profession. She has also worked as the additional advocate general for the state of Haryana while running a private practice.
After completing her undergraduate at the University of Warwick with a BA (Hons) in English Literature, she studied Law at BPP Law School in London. She completed her Master of Studies at St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford.
Somnath Bharti, 49, has been associated with the AAP since its inception. He has been winning from the Malviya Nagar Assembly constituency for the last three consecutive terms. In the 2020 Assembly elections, he defeated the BJP and Congress candidates by a huge margin, garnering 57.97% votes.
Bharti is currently the vice-chairman of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), and is considered popular in his constituency. He is known for promptly addressing public grievances, and running dedicated WhatsApp groups.
A lawyer, Bharti is an IIT graduate. In the first Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government, which lasted for 49 days between December 2013 and February 2014, he served as a minister handling the portfolios of Law, Tourism, Administrative Reforms, Art and Culture.
In the 2019 polls, the AAP had nominated Brijesh Goyal from the New Delhi seat against the BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi, who won by four lakh votes.
