New Delhi:
BJP's candidate Meenakshi Lekhi made quite the statement on Friday, driving to file her nomination in an open Gypsy with senior leader VK Malhotra sitting next to her. She hopes to stay in the driver's seat for the New Delhi constituency from where she is contesting her first election.
"I'm the candidate from New Delhi, but I'm not new in Delhi," she quips, as she checks over the nomination papers and discusses the tasks ahead with her team at the BJP's Delhi office. "I'm a formidable candidate. These people are going to have a tough time," she says.
One of those stays next door. At 10, Pandit Pant Marg, right next to the Delhi BJP office, the mood is celebratory. The drums haven't stopped beating for most of the morning, the fire crackers have been brought out in day time and there's barely enough place to stand. It's the home of former Union Minister and General Secretary of the Congress party, Ajay Maken. A two-term MP, he's looking for a hat-trick from the New Delhi constituency where he won with a phenomenal margin of over 1.8 lakh votes in 2009, defeating BJP's Vijay Goel.
"I'm quite confident. I feel I have much more support than the last time. I'm going in with a positive frame of mind on the basis of the work I have done," he tells NDTV.
But think of New Delhi and the Congress' near rout in the Assembly elections of December 2013 comes to mind. From an overwhelming majority in the Assembly of 70, the party was reduced to a miserable eight seats. Worse, the party's face in Delhi, three-term chief minister Sheila Dikshit lost by more than 10,000 votes from the New Delhi constituency to fledgling Aam Aadmi Party's Arvind Kejriwal. But Mr Maken feels the dismal showing will not repeat in the Lok Sabha polls.
"Assembly elections are fought on different issues and Lok Sabha elections on different ones. There is no anti-incumbency against our candidates. In fact, the opposition has had a tough time fielding candidates. Our candidates are much better placed," he adds.
The Congress won all seven seats in the Lok Sabha elections in 2009 and the party has repeated all its MPs for the 2014 battle from Delhi.
The battle promises to be an interesting one with the AAP fielding journalist Ashish Khetan. Mr Khetan is the founder of the website gulail.com and was recently in the news for the website's sting operation on the Gujarat police. Mr Khetan is counting on his work and credentials as an honest journalist and hopes that can help tilt the scales in his favour. The debutant is confident that the performance of the party in December's Assembly elections has shown that it got an overwhelming support from the people and is once again banking on its people connect and door-to-door campaigns to drive the point home.
From an actor (Trinamool Congress candidate Biswajit Chatterjee) to an investigative journalist, the battle for New Delhi is heating up. When Delhi votes on April 10, this is certain to be a contest closely watched.
"I'm the candidate from New Delhi, but I'm not new in Delhi," she quips, as she checks over the nomination papers and discusses the tasks ahead with her team at the BJP's Delhi office. "I'm a formidable candidate. These people are going to have a tough time," she says.
One of those stays next door. At 10, Pandit Pant Marg, right next to the Delhi BJP office, the mood is celebratory. The drums haven't stopped beating for most of the morning, the fire crackers have been brought out in day time and there's barely enough place to stand. It's the home of former Union Minister and General Secretary of the Congress party, Ajay Maken. A two-term MP, he's looking for a hat-trick from the New Delhi constituency where he won with a phenomenal margin of over 1.8 lakh votes in 2009, defeating BJP's Vijay Goel.
"I'm quite confident. I feel I have much more support than the last time. I'm going in with a positive frame of mind on the basis of the work I have done," he tells NDTV.
But think of New Delhi and the Congress' near rout in the Assembly elections of December 2013 comes to mind. From an overwhelming majority in the Assembly of 70, the party was reduced to a miserable eight seats. Worse, the party's face in Delhi, three-term chief minister Sheila Dikshit lost by more than 10,000 votes from the New Delhi constituency to fledgling Aam Aadmi Party's Arvind Kejriwal. But Mr Maken feels the dismal showing will not repeat in the Lok Sabha polls.
"Assembly elections are fought on different issues and Lok Sabha elections on different ones. There is no anti-incumbency against our candidates. In fact, the opposition has had a tough time fielding candidates. Our candidates are much better placed," he adds.
The Congress won all seven seats in the Lok Sabha elections in 2009 and the party has repeated all its MPs for the 2014 battle from Delhi.
The battle promises to be an interesting one with the AAP fielding journalist Ashish Khetan. Mr Khetan is the founder of the website gulail.com and was recently in the news for the website's sting operation on the Gujarat police. Mr Khetan is counting on his work and credentials as an honest journalist and hopes that can help tilt the scales in his favour. The debutant is confident that the performance of the party in December's Assembly elections has shown that it got an overwhelming support from the people and is once again banking on its people connect and door-to-door campaigns to drive the point home.
From an actor (Trinamool Congress candidate Biswajit Chatterjee) to an investigative journalist, the battle for New Delhi is heating up. When Delhi votes on April 10, this is certain to be a contest closely watched.
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