New Delhi: Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi will launch the party’s Delhi campaign by addressing a rally in support of veteran JP Agarwal, who is pitted against BJP’s Praveen Khandelwal in the Chandni Chowk seat. “Rahul Gandhi will campaign in the Chandni Chowk seat on May 18,” AICC in-charge of Delhi Dipak Babaria told ETV Bharat.
According to party insiders, Rahul will address the rally on May 18 the day campaigning will end in his Rae Bareli seat in Uttar Pradesh. Next week, star campaigners Priyanka Gandhi and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge will also campaign for the Congress nominees in the national capital. Furthermore, as the Congress-AAP coordination is doing fine on the ground in Delhi, a joint INDIA bloc rally is also being explored for next week, said the party insiders.
As part of the pact, the Congress is contesting three seats while the AAP, which has a state government in Delhi, is contesting the remaining four seats out of the total seven seats. Polling in Delhi will be held on May 25. The result would be out on June 4. In the previous 2019 national polls, the BJP had won all seven seats but faced a challenge from the INDIA bloc in 2024.
Besides JP Aggarwal, ex-IAS officer Udit Raj is fighting from North West seat against BJP’s Yogendra Chandolia while ex-JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar is pitted against BJP’s Manoj Tiwari in the North East seat. In the New Delhi seat, AAP's Somnath Bharti is fighting BJP's Bansuri Swaraj, in the East Delhi seat AAP's Kuldeep Kumar is fighting BJP’s Harsh Malhotra, in the South Delhi seat AAP's Sahiram Pehelwan is fighting BJP's Ramvir Bidhuri and in West Delhi seat AAP's Mahabal Mishra is fighting BJP's Kamaljit Sehrawat.
According to party insiders, workers of both the Congress and AAP had overcome their initial doubts and were working in coordination on all the seven seats in the national capital. “The INDIA bloc will win all the seven seats,” said Babaria.
The Congress leaders said the alliance campaign had been boosted by the release of AAP founder and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on bail and campaigned for the alliance candidates on May 14 and 15. On May 14, Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav campaigned for AAP nominee Kuldeep Kumar in the East Delhi seat.
The Congress-AAP alliance was approved by the high command despite stiff resistance from some local leaders like former state unit chief Arvinder Singh Lovely, Rajkumar Chauhan and Niraj Basoya, who joined the BJP. “There is no problem. The alliance is working fine. The issues in these elections are unemployment, price rise and saving the Constitution. The BJP MPs never raised the issues affecting the public in the past five years,” Chandni Chowk candidate JP Aggarwal told ETV Bharat.
North East seat candidate Kanhaiya Kumar had been regularly raising the issue of Kejriwal’s arrest in the alleged liquor scam during his campaign saying the voters would respond to jail with the vote. When Kejriwal was in jail, Kanhaiya Kumar met his wife Sunita Kejriwal and later met the Chief Minister after his release on bail. According to party insiders, former state unit chief Lovely was miffed over Kanhaiya Kumar getting a ticket from the seat he had been eyeing.
Read more: Congress Fields Senior Leaders In Campaign Along With Priyanka Gandhi In Amethi And Rae Bareli
