Polls Closing In, Delhi Congress Finally Gets A Chief In Subhash Chopra

The Congress appointed party leader Subhash Chopra as the chief of its Delhi unit on Thursday. The post had been lying vacant ever since former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit died on July 20.

Party president Sonia Gandhi zeroed in on Subhash Chopra after holding discussions with Delhi leaders. The Congress had been handling its affairs in the national capital through three working presidents -- Haroon Yusuf, Devendra Yadav and Rajesh Lilothia -- for the last two months.

With elections just round the corner, the Congress leadership also named cricketer-turned-politician Kirti Azad as the chairman of the party's Delhi campaign committee. Mr Azad was earlier believed to be one of the contenders for the Congress chief's post.

First elected to the Delhi assembly in 1998, 72-year-old Subhash Chopra is a three-time MLA from Kalkaji. He had held the Delhi Congress chief's position in the past, from 1998 to 2003, and served as the assembly speaker from June 2003 to December 2003.  

The politician is faced with the uphill task of readying the party for the assembly elections in February 2020. Although the national capital was once considered a Congress stronghold under Sheila Dikshit, many of its voters have since shifted allegiance to the BJP as well as the ruling Aam Aadmi Party.

Among the others in the race for the Delhi Congress chief's position were Sandeep Dikshit, former parliamentarian and Sheila Dikshit's son, and Ajay Maken, who had served in the position ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Kirti Azad, a former cricketer and son of former Bihar chief minister Bhagwat Jha Azad, has returned to the Delhi Congress after nearly two decades. He had represented Gole Market in the Delhi assembly in 1993, but moved to Bihar's Dharbhanga after losing the following election.