Turf war in Delhi, hurts Cong’s UP campaign

The turf war within the Delhi Congress could impact party’s campaign in Uttar Pradesh. The Congress leadership on Tuesday morning woke up to a rude shock with former MP from East Delhi Sandeep Dikshit blogging against being sidelined. Dikshit, son of former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, wrote, “When my own party has put me out to graze, what greener pastures do I look for?”

His comments came as a surprise as his mother has just been rehabilitated as party’s chief ministerial candidate ahead of the assembly polls in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh. 

Dikhsit’s blog came on the day when party leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Raj Babbar and Sheila Dikshit returned to city after what they called a successful bus ride from Delhi to Kanpur. The bus was flagged off by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday.

Sources close to Sandeep Dikshit claim that the two-term MP and AICC office-bearer is miffed with Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken, who he feels has ignored and insulted him on several occasions. 

Dikshit indicated in his blog that Ajay Maken was responsible for defaming his mother Sheila Dikshit, by falsely implicating her in the CWG scam and water tanker scam. Dikshit, however, stopped short of naming Maken in the blog.

Embarrassed at the outburst, senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is party’s incharge for UP, said that party’s face in UP Sheila Dikshit could not be held responsible for the outburst by “one of her relatives.” 

Azad said that Sheila Dikshit’s involvement and commitment with party’s UP campaign was beyond doubt. Both Maken and Sheila Dikshit refused to give reaction on the blog.