Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 3: The Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which the Prime Minister Narendra Modi called “AAPda” (Disaster), targeted the Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva as the poster war between the two parties intensified ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections due next month.
Following reports that Mr Sachdeva had opted out from contesting the Delhi elections, the AAP put up a poster on social media platform ‘X’ mocking Sachdeva. The poster showed him in Milkha Singh’s avatar similar to the character in Bollywood film ‘Bhag Milkha Bhag.’ The party’s Delhi unit also took a dig on the BJP leader with the caption saying, “Kya Hua, Darr Gaye?” (What happened…are you scared?)
As per the media reports, the Delhi BJP chief is unlikely to contest the upcoming assembly elections. He reportedly conveyed his decision to the BJP leadership, saying that he would instead focus on ensuring the party’s success across all 70 constituencies in Delhi.
Though he has explicitly not cleared his stand on the coming elections, he had indicated that he would like to look for all the 70 seats to ensure the BJP’s victory instead of himself contesting the elections. “We have a process. We follow the process in every election. The list can be expected in a day or two. Individual is not important. It is the party that is important. My responsibility is to win all 70 seats. This is my responsibility.”
Addressing party workers earlier this week, Mr Sachdeva had clarified his stance, dismissing earlier speculation that he might contest from Krishna Nagar or Vishwas Nagar constituencies.
The BJP and the AAP have been aggressive against each other via posters and words, accusing each other of adding fake voters to manipulate electoral outcomes. Earlier, the BJP had put up in a social media post with a poster of Kejriwal and claimed the former Delhi Chief Minister had launched a “new game in Delhi” to “save power by rigging votes.” The AAP countered the BJP’s accusations by sharing a video of Kejriwal labelled “G.O.A.T” (greatest of all time), in an attempt to dismiss the allegations.
The BJP is yet to unveil its candidate list for the Delhi polls while the AAP has already announced its candidates across all constituencies. The Congress meanwhile has nominated its senior leader Alka Lamba to face AAP candidate and Delhi Chief Minister Atishi in the Kalkaji constituency in the Delhi assembly elections.
“The Central Election Committee has approved the candidature of Alka Lamba as Congress candidate to contest the forthcoming general election to the Legislative Assembly of Delhi from 51 – Kalkaji constituency,” said the Congress in a statement. Ms Lamba, who is All India Mahila Congress President, has in the past contested unsuccessfully against Arvind Kejriwal. Sources say Ms Lamba was not keen on contesting from Kalkaji.
Ms Atishi is the third woman chief minister of Delhi after Sheila Dikshit and Sushma Swaraj. She is also the youngest person to become the chief minister of Delhi. The Congress, which was in power in Delhi for 15 straight years, has not been able to win any seat in the last two editions of the Delhi polls.
Alka Lamba joined the Congress’ students’ wing, National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), in 1994 when she was 19. A year later, she won the election to the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU). The 49-year-old leader left the Congress in 2013 and joined the Aam Aadmi Party. Two years later, she went on to win the election to the Delhi assembly from Chandni Chowk constituency. In 2019, she left the AAP and returned to her parent party, the Congress.
Allies in the Opposition bloc INDIA, the Congress and AAP are fighting against each other in the Delhi polls. The parties even fought separately in the Haryana elections last year. However, the two did come together for the seven Delhi Lok Sabha seats in the general elections of 2024. The results were dismal, with the BJP winning all seven seats.
