Sitting MP from North-East Parliamentary constituency Jai Prakash Aggarwal was on Tuesday elected in the party primary for choosing the candidate for the coming lok Sabha polls. Aggarwal has defeated his rival former MlA Rajesh lilothia by a margin of 205 votes. He has got 252 votes out of total elector of 365 while lilothia obtained only 47 votes. Six votes were found invalid.
North East Parliamentary constituency is one of the two lok Sabha seats in the Capital where the party is holding US-style primaries to decide its candidate. The experiment is the brainchild of party vice-president Rahul Gandhi. Sitting Congress MP Ajay Maken has already been elected unanimously in the party primary for choosing the candidate for the upcoming lok Sabha polls. Sources in the Congress said that the party may announce its candidates by March 13.
The Congress was relegated to the third place in the New Delhi seat and North-East Parliamentary seat during the recent Assembly elections. At the backdrop of the AAP upsetting the political arithmetic of Delhi, both Congress and the BJP are conducting brainstorming session over announcing lok Sabha candidates while the two-year-old AAP has already named seven candidates.
After defeating his rival, Jai Prakash Aggarwal expressed thanks to all supporters and party workers who reposed faith in him. He said that leaders should maintain good relations with their workers. Former MP Jagdish Tytler, whose candidature was withdrawn by the party during the last lok Sabha polls due to protests over his alleged role in 1984 anti-Sikh riots, had filed his nomination from North East seat but he was forced to withdraw it after intervention of senior leaders.
The Congress made a clean sweep in 2009 polls bagging all seven seats. The sitting MPs were law Minister Kapil Sibal (Chandni Chowk), JP Aggarwal (North-East Delhi), Congress spokesperson and former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s son Sandeep Dikshit (East Delhi), party general secretary Ajay Maken (New Delhi), Union Minister Krishna Tirath (North-West Delhi), Mahabal Mishra (West Delhi) and Ramesh Kumar (South Delhi).