NEW DELHI, January 29: Congress candidates Ajay Maken and Sheila Dixit are banking on Sonia Gandhi's aura to win the elections from South Delhi and East Delhi respectively.Maken hopes that that he can use Sonia's apology for Operation Bluestar and the '84 riots to good effect, while Dixit's followers reason that since she is close to Sonia and visits 10 Janpath often the electorate should vote for her.
However, both admit that the confusion surrounding the distribution of tickets has given the BJP a head start.
Claiming that he is not a compromise candidate, Maken believes that he is capable of pulling off the biggest upset in Delhi.
According to him Sonia's apology and the subsequent denial of tickets to Congress heavyweights -- Bhagat, Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar who are suspected to have been involved in the riots -- will bring him the winning votes against BJP spokesperson Sushma Swaraj.
Of the 24 candidates who are in the fray, Swaraj is Maken's main rival.
He claims that Swaraj has donelittle for the constituency in the 18 months that she has been an MP. "Of the 80 questions she has asked in Parliament, only two were related to problems in Delhi. I have got copies of the proceedings in the Lok Sabha, and I will furnish them before the electorate," he said.
The former DUSU president and sitting MLA from Rajouri Garden says that he has been a permanent resident of Delhi unlike Sushma who contested the '96 elections from the Capital for the first time. Further, he thinks that his record as an MLA in the Delhi Assembly for the past four years will only contribute to his success.
The battle for the East Delhi seat is even more interesting as "outsider" Shiela Dixit has been pitted against Lal Behari Tewari of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Kesri Singh Gujjar of the Janata Dal (JD) and Yunus Parvez of the Samajwadi Party (SP).
Dixit is campaigning along with Deep Chand Bandhu and Dr Ashok Walia - both had unsuccessfully contested for the assembly from here. The latter were heard tellingperplexed supporters: "She is very close to Sonia Gandhi. You should consider yourselves lucky to have her contesting from East Delhi."
A senior East Delhi Congress leader says: "Unfortunately, two things will go against the Congress. One, she is an outsider and East Delhi is an area of the have-nots. They relate to people like Bhagat or Walia who live here. She is a rank outsider. Not only does she live in South Delhi but she also does not know her party workers, leave aside the voters."
He adds: "Dixit has come into the scene very late. The BJP has a clear 15 day head start. Secondly, Bhagat still has a considerable hold over his voters. And he is not with her. There are 37 villages in East Delhi. Bhagat still visits the people. Bhagat nahin - Congress nahin (no Bhagat - no Congress)," he adds.
Lal Behari Tewari till yesterday was considered a weak candidate. Suddenly he has become the front runner. Tewari says Congress does not pose a challenge and anyway the Congress votes would now befurther divided between the JD and SP candidates.
But it is clearly BJP versus Sonia Gandhi in East Delhi and South Delhi.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
