Even as the Delhi Congress has completed the primaries for the New Delhi Parliamentary seat and is now gearing up for voting for the North-East Lok Sabha seat on Tuesday, there are growing indications that the party may not repeat all of its sitting MPs in the five seats which did not undergo the candidate selection drive.
Sources said while the Delhi State unit of the party has been pushing for repeating the sitting MPs as party candidates from all the seven Parliamentary seats, the Central leadership could change one or two faces in Delhi. They insist that at least in two seats – South Delhi and North-West (SC) – a big question mark hangs over who the party would field. These seats are at present represented by Ramesh Kumar (brother of Sajjan Kumar, who is facing cases related to the 1984 riots) and Union Minister Krishna Tirath respectively.
“Ramesh Kumar was fielded in 2009 after Sikh groups started raising questions on the Congress fielding Sajjan Kumar. While Jagdish Tytler was asked to withdraw his candidature, Mr. Ramesh Kumar was fielded in place of Mr. Sajjan Kumar due to his influence across the dominant Jat community in outer Delhi,” said a senior Congress leader.
However, the equations appear to have changed in the last five years. With party vice-president Rahul Gandhi dropping enough hints of promoting the next generation leaders, sources said it is unlikely that the party would like to carry the bogey of past in this election, especially after the Aam Aadmi Party brought the issue of 1984 riots back into the limelight by setting up a SIT probe.
According to party leaders, Mr. Tytler had to withdraw his candidature from the North East primaries last week after instructions from the Central leadership.
While the State unit has been advocating repeating the sitting MPs, Congress leaders said the Central Election Committee last week asked the State unit to prepare a fresh list. Sources said Union Minister Krishna Tirath is also facing opposition from within the party as a majority of the office-bearers and the sitting and ex-MLAs in her constituency are pressuring the Central leadership not to give a ticket to her.
Names of Yoganand Shastri and former NSUI president Rohit Chaudhary are doing the rounds in the party circles for a ticket from South Delhi. Similarly, former PWD Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan and five-time MLA Jai Kishan have emerged as other contenders for a ticket in North-West constituency, said party sources.
