locked in a triangular fight for the first time in lok Sabha polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party will be contesting to wrest all seven seats from the Congress. In the previous general elections in 2009, the Congress had a clean sweep, defeating the BJP 7-0.
But the BJP is upbeat this time round given the humiliating defeat the Congress suffered in the Assembly Polls primarily on account of anti-incumbency and corruption charges which the party has been facing in Centre as well as in the State. The BJP has also made it clear that corruption, women safety and good governance would be its major poll planks for the lok Sabha elections.
However, the BJP and the Congress will be challenged by the Aam Admi Party which surprised one and all by its spectacular performance in the Assembly Polls. Winning 28 seats in the Delhi Assembly, the party went on to form the Government led by its leader Arvind Kejriwal and with outside support from the Congress. The AAP has already declared five out of seven candidates for Delhi seats. It is yet to decide on candidature in the New Delhi and South Delhi Parliamentary Constituencies.
In 2009, Congress candidate Ajay Maken defeated BJP’s Vijay Goel from New Delhi seat while another Congress heavyweight Kapil Sibal won the Chandni Chowk constituency defeating BJP’s Vijender Gupta. In South Delhi, senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar’s brother Ramesh Kumar defeated BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri while Mahabal Mishra of Congress won the West Delhi seat from BJP. Similarly in East, North-East and North-West Delhi seats, Congress leaders — Sandeep Dikshit, JP Aggarwal and Krishna Tirath defeated BJP’s Chetan Chauhan, Bl Sharma Prem and Mira Kanwaria respectively.
Constituency-wise distribution
Total voters 1, 20, 60, 493
Names of Constituency number of electorates
New Delhi 14, 04, 234
South Delhi 16, 42, 875
Chandni Chowk 15,67, 123
West Delhi 20,89, 831
East Delhi1 7,33,731
North-East 18,67, 000
North West 20,93, 922