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Under the current arrangement, while AAP would contest the South and West Delhi seats, North-West has been ceded to the Congress. In exchange Congress has passed on New Delhi and East Delhi seats, on which in 2019 its candidates were Ajay Maken and Arvinder Singh Lovely respectively.With Maken, now treasurer of the All India Congress Committee, all set to enter Rajya Sabha from Karnataka and Lovely heading the Delhi Congress, giving New Delhi and East Delhi seats looks to be a good bargain. What remains with the Congress are Chandni Chowk, North East Delhi and North West Delhi.On these seats it’s in a position to place formidable candidates – former MPs JP Agarwal, Sandeep Dikshit and former Delhi Minister Rajkumar Chauhan among some more others.However, the elections are not predicted alone on the basis of vote shares in the past polls but also the potential of the candidates in the poll fray. During the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, as mentioned earlier, even the combined votes polled by AAP and the Congress candidates did not measure up to the votes polled by the BJP candidates. The BJP in 2019 played on its bench strength changing sitting members on two seats – East Delhi and North-West Delhi and romping home on all the seven seats.While the BJP has both the bench strength and a well-oiled poll machinery and the face of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as mascot, the AAP, the senior partner in the opposition alliance, by their own admission, would have a leaderless campaign in the event of Kejriwal’s arrest. This could ease things for the BJP leaders, who themselves are fighting anti-incumbency, in some cases of two terms. Will the BJP change its candidates, is a valid question to ask.Nevertheless, as of now it’s clear that the Congress has taken the liability of the AAP in Delhi to safeguard its interests in other states where the ruling party of Delhi has been repeatedly cutting into the grand old party’s vote banks.Sidharth MishraAuthor and president, Centre for Reforms, Development & Justice
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Congress picks AAP’s tab in Delhi to safeguard interests elsewhere
