AAP's Atishi (left) and Congress' Alka Lamba.
PTI
New Delhi: The Congress party on Friday announced that its national Mahila wing chief Alka Lamba will take on Chief Minister Atishi in the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections, as the party made it clear that it will not back down from the fight against its I.N.D.I.A. ally.
Lamba (49), the president of All India Mahila Congress, has been fielded from Kalkaji Assembly seat against Atishi.
She had returned to Congress after being an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA between 2015-19 following AAP government’s move to pass a resolution seeking recalling Rajiv Gandhi’s Bharat Ratna.
The announcement of her candidature, which is seen as part of a carefully crafted strategy by the Congress to regain its hold in the capital that it lost to AAP in 2013, brings the number of party nominees for the election to 48. Congress is likely to announce candidates for the remaining 22 seats soon.
‘I don’t think I am contesting against the Chief Minister. Kejriwal himself called Atishi a 'temporary CM, so she has only a month left. Kejriwal won't return anyway. As a woman holding a constitutional post, she is disrespecting her position. Atishi must clarify her stance on being called a temporary CM,” Lamba said after her candidature was announced.
Signalling that it is in no mood for a compromise with AAP, the Congress has fielded its well-known senior faces against AAP’s lead face Arvind Kejriwal, former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Atishi.
Sandeep Dikshit, a former MP and son of late Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, will take on Kejriwal in the New Delhi seat while former Delhi Mayor Farhad Suri has been tasked to fight against Sisodia.
Congress has also announced candidature of Delhi unit president Devender Yadav, National SC Department chairman Rajesh Lilothia, former Minister Harun Yusuf and prominent Delhi leaders Jai Kishan, Ragini Nayak, Anil Bhardwaj, Adarsh Shastri, Abhishek Dutt and Jai Prakash.
Sources said Congress has identified around 20 seats where it could give a good fight and in around a dozen, it believes it could stand a good chance.
Both Congress and AAP had fought the Lok Sabha elections in alliance but had decided to contest against each other in the Assembly elections, as the latter is unwilling to forget the animosity both parties shared so far.
While leaders like Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi are said to be sympathetic to AAP, sources said Treasurer Ajay Maken, a prominent leader from Delhi, and others are not keen to tie up with the Kejriwal-led party.
Maken had last month called Kejriwal “anti-national” and went to the extent of saying that the party giving support to Kejriwal’s 49-day government was the main reason for the “weakening” of the party in the capital and there is a need to rectify the “repeated mistake” of entering into an alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
AAP hit back saying it will ask other parties to “drop” Congress from the I.N.D.I.A. bloc, if it does not take action against Maken and clear whether it is in collusion with the BJP for Delhi elections.