New Delhi election result: Sandeep Dikshit challenges AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal
New Delhi election result: Sandeep Dikshit, 60, is the son of Sheila Dikshit, who served as Delhi’s chief minister for 15 years.
New Delhi election result: Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit is up against former Delhi CM and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal from the New Delhi seat in the Delhi Assembly Polls.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded also fielded Parvesh Verma, son of former chief minister Sahib Singh Verma, from the seat.
Kejriwal is seeking his fourth consecutive term from the constituency. His debut win over Sheila Dikshit in 2013 by thumping margin of around 25,000 votes marked a seismic shift in Delhi politics
Sandeep Dikshit, 60, is the son of Sheila Dikshit, who served as Delhi’s chief minister for 15 years.
Sandeep Dikshit took a grassroots approach during the election campaign, conducting door-to-door campaigns. The two-time Congress MP, who has been an outspoken Kejriwal critic, hopes to leverage his mother’s reputation as he aims to revive the party’s connection with the city.
During the campaign, Dikshit said in 1998 and 2003 he was handling his mother’s election affairs when she contested from this constituency (then it was known as Gole Market constituency).
In an interview with HT, Verma himself acknowledged Dikshit’s potential to split the anti-BJP vote, stating, “Congress is very much in the game because Dikshit’s mother was a popular CM in power for 15 years, and he has been an MP twice.”
The New Delhi constituency
The New Delhi constituency, one of the smallest in the city, carries outsized symbolic weight.
Encompassing Lutyens Delhi and its adjacent areas, it serves as a microcosm of the Capital’s socioeconomic diversity, with a voter base that includes government employees, slum dwellers, traders, and Dalits.
With its diverse demographics — government employees, traders, Dalits, and slum dwellers—New Delhi presents unique electoral dynamics. The constituency’s floating population, estimated at 1.6 to 2 million people daily, far exceeds its 109,000 registered voters. According to political observers, the New Delhi seat encapsulates the larger battle for Delhi’s future.