New Delhi: Congress has a wary eye Parvesh moves

Parvesh Verma is not only the BJP’s worry any longer. With the elder son of former Delhi CM Sahib Singh Verma threatening to resign after not being given a ticket from West Delhi and refusing to cooperate with the party during the elections, the Congress is closely watching Verma’s moves, before declaring its own candidate from the constituency for the Lok Sabha elections.

According to Congress sources, the party has so far played it safe and decided to field its sitting MPs in six constituencies in the Capital. They are Ajay Maken from New Delhi, Krishna Tirath from North-West Delhi (reserved), Sandeep Dikshit from East Delhi, Kapil Sibal from Chandni Chowk, Sajjan Kumar from South Delhi and Jagdish Tytler from North-East Delhi.

Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee chief J P Agarwal said he would not be able to tell when the name for the West Delhi seat would be announced. “The list of candidates has been sent to the party high command,” he said.

“Sitting MPs have been selected to ensure that there are no fissures within the party and the morale of the grassroot-level workers is not affected,” said a party leader.

“The West Delhi seat is a new constituency carved out of Outer Delhi and New Delhi. The party is already facing trouble in finding a new candidate,” he added.

Congress has been pondering over names like MLAs Mahabal Mishra and Mukesh Sharma, senior advocates R K Anand and K T S Tulsi and senior party leader Brij Mohan Bhama. The name of former minorities commission member and Congress leader Harcharan Singh Josh is also doing the rounds.

While Sharma, a close aide of Sajjan Kumar, was a frontrunner in the race, the party is also considering Bhama’s name as a lesser-known face against BJP’s Jagdish Mukhi. Bhama had contested the Delhi Assembly election in 1993 from Gole Market that later became CM Sheila Dikshit’s Assembly seat.

But with Verma’s supporters holding a ‘Mahapanchayat’ of Jats in Dwarka on Sunday, the Congress has to now consider the role Jat votes may play in the elections.

“There are at least one lakh Jat votes in the West Delhi constituency which may have an impact on the results,” said a party source in West Delhi. Six rural seats from the former Outer Delhi constituency and three others from New Delhi — Rajouri Garden, Hari Nagar and Janakpuri — have been merged to form the West Delhi Parliamentary constituency. The areas are known to be part of a BJP belt where four-time MLA Mukhi has an edge over the others.