Who Is Mahabal Mishra, AAP Candidate From West Delhi Lok Sabha Seat

Former Member of Parliament Mahabal Mishra will contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from the West Delhi constituency. Mr Mishra, once a prominent Purvanchali face of Congress, will enter the fray on an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ticket. He joined the Arvind Kejriwal-led party ahead of the municipal elections in 2022.

His son Vinay Mishra is an AAP legislator from Dwarka seat. Mr Mishra had earlier represented the West Delhi seat in 2009 when Congress swept all seven constituencies in the national capital.

Here are 5 key points on Mahabal Mishra:

1) Born on July 31, 1953, Mahabal Mishra belongs to the Madhubani district in Bihar. He holds a diploma in Transistor Theory from LS College in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. Mr Mishra started his political journey with a win in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections in 1997-98 on a Congress ticket from the Dabri ward of West Delhi.

2) A year later, he contested the Nasirpur seat on a Congress ticket and beat BJP's Vinod Sharma. Congress swept the election in Delhi and Sheila Dixit became the Chief Minister of the National Capital.

3) After his first term as MLA, Mahabal Mishra switched his seat to Dwarka. He won from the Dwarka assembly constituency twice in 2003 and 2008. He was among the front runners to secure a cabinet berth in the Delhi government after his third reelection but failed to make the cut.

4) Mahabal Mishra has established himself as a face of the Purvanchali community. The community forms a substantial part of population in the West Delhi seat. Congress fielded Mr Mishra from the West Delhi Lok Sabha seat in 2009. He defeated veteran BJP leader Jagdish Mukhi.

5) In the 2014 Lok Sabha,  Mahabl Mishra slipped to the third position in the seat. He contested the 2019 election again on a Congress ticket but lost to BJP's Parvesh Verma by over 5.7 lakh votes.