Delhi Congress has decided to pitch former deputy mayor and present leader of Opposition in East Delhi Municipal Corporation Varyam Kaur against BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Harsh Vardhan from Krishna Nagar seat.
Vardhan has been representing Krishna Nagar since 1993 defeating Baljinder Singh of Congress in the first poll, SN Mishra again of Congress in 1998, Narendra Jain in 2003 and Deepika Khullar in 2008 assembly polls.
Though Vardhan managed to comfortably win elections till 2003, in the 2008 assembly elections, the BJP candidate was given a tough fight from Deepika Khullar. Vardhan managed to reclaim the seat with a meagre 3,200 vote lead.
Kaur has been a corporator since 1997 from Raghupura ward in Gandhi Nagar and had been elected as the deputy mayor. Former BJP councillor VK Monga, who has recently joined the Congress, was also in race for the assembly ticket from Krishna Nagar.
According to internal sources of the Congress, if the party would have pitched for Monga’s candidature then a mass revolt would have resulted from within the party. ‘The Congress Screening Committee on Thursday assembled to discuss candidates for 27 seat in Delhi, which the party lost in the 2008 assembly elections. The committee has finalised the names and sent them to the Central Election Committee for approval,’ said DPCC president.
Sources in the Congress said the committee recommended Varyam Kaur’s name as the first choice. Discussions continued till late night on Thursday at the Screening Committee meeting and consensus on the panel had to be left to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
It is expected that the next Central Election Committee meeting will be held after Diwali on 6 November and candidate’s names will announced on 7 November.