NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Friday confirmed that he would be contesting from the New Delhi assembly constituency in the upcoming polls.
The AAP supremo’s confirmation comes amid speculation that he might consider switching his seat for the Delhi polls, especially after the party’s second senior-most leader Manish Sisodia chose to contest from Jangpura instead of his current constituency Patparganj.
Kejriwal also asserted that the contest in the New Delhi constituency will be a battle between the “CM’s son and the common man”.
He was referring to Congress candidate Sandeep Dikshit, the son of three-time CM Sheila Dikshit, who will be contesting against the AAP supremo. The BJP may field Parvesh Verma, the son of former chief minister Sahib Singh Verma, against him.
Sandeep Dikshit has emerged as a harsh critic of AAP and Kejriwal. After AAP and Congress failed to win any Lok Sabha seats in Delhi as INDIA bloc contestants, he commented that such partnerships wouldn’t help Congress regain its foothold in Delhi. Congress is keen to re-establish its presence in Delhi, having failed to secure any seats in the previous two assembly elections of 2015 and 2020.
Earlier, the New Delhi seat was held by Sheila Dikshit from 1999 to 2013 before Arvind Kejriwal wrested the constituency from her in his poll debut in the same year.
“There will be no change. I will contest from New Delhi seat and chief minister Atishi from Kalkaji,” he said while speaking at the India Today event.
Kejriwal said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is contesting the Delhi Assembly elections in his name and asserted that his party will come back to power for the fourth time with a good mandate.
“This election is being fought in the name of Kejriwal and I will become the chief minister of Delhi,” Kejriwal said, adding that chief minister Atishi was a “temporary” arrangement to fill the gap created due to his arrest in the excise policy case.
Responding to the controversy and the BJP’s allegations on him of living in a “Sheeshmahal” as the chief minister, Kejriwal said the bungalow at 6, Flagstaff Road in north Delhi was meant for the Delhi chief minister.
“I lived there as the chief minister of Delhi. If someone else becomes the chief minister of Delhi, he will live there. I did not build the bungalow. It was built by the PWD,” he said and pointed out that he used to live in slum when he was an activist.
A few days ago, sharing the video of the renovated Delhi CM house, which was revamped Arvind Kejriwal held office, BJP’s local unit chief Virendra Sachdeva called the residence a “museum of corruption”, a remark the AAP dismissed as “baseless propaganda”.
The BJP has stepped up its attack on Kejriwal over the controversial renovation, saying “It is the ‘sheesh mahal’ which he wanted to hide from the people of Delhi”.