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Congress, in its list of candidates for 2025 Delhi Assembly elections, has pitted Sandeep Dikshit opposite Arvind Kejriwal, from the New Delhi constituency.
Senior Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit is the son of former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit. (Image: PTI/File)
When bastions crumble, upheaval takes place. The New Delhi constituency is one such bastion, which is seeing yet another challenge after 2013. That was the year when an activist and Income Tax officer Arvind Kejriwal was battle ready to take on three-time Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit from the New Delhi constituency, considered to be a fortress of the Congress. The result left many shocked as Kejriwal defeated her with over 25,000 votes, vowing to “send the corrupt CM to jail.”
After almost 11 years, Sheila Dikshit’s son Sandeep is getting ready to breach this bastion, which is now with Kejriwal. Congress, in its list of candidates for 2025 Delhi Assembly elections, has pitted Sandeep Dikshit opposite Arvind Kejriwal. Will it be a son’s revenge? After all, Sandeep has been a bitter critic of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and can never forget the harsh words Kejriwal used against his mother.
Sandeep Dikshit told News18, “No, I don’t see it as revenge. I see it as a fight to reclaim what was once a clean, green, developed Delhi. This is the city we want to give back to the people.”
But the Congress has made a shrewd choice in pitting Sandeep Dikshit opposite the former CM. It also now makes it clear that the Congress is no longer shying away from a direct fight with the AAP after Kejriwal snubbed the party and announced that he would have no alliance with them in Delhi. “Of course, I am very happy we are not going into an alliance with the AAP. They have destroyed Delhi and we want to save this city which was built by Sheila Dikshit,” Sandeep said.
Interestingly, Sandeep Dikshit, in the past year, has been building on his mother’s legacy. “Even her worst critics accept the fact that under her, Delhi was at its best. Several flyovers, development projects, roads, clean vehicles were her contribution. This is what we will build our campaign on,” Sandeep said. There was a grudge that the Congress had used and thrown Sheila Dikshit and had neglected her in her last years. In fact, in UP polls, Sheila Dikshit was projected as the Brahmin CM face of the Congress but was dumped midway when the party went into an alliance with the SP as “UP ke ladke“. It’s a hurt which Sheila Dikshit often spoke about.
While Sandeep has not been so scathing about it, he had on multiple occasions made it clear and shown with the huge crowd which poured in to pay tribute to her on her death anniversary that Sheila Dikshit could never be overlooked. On the choice of the constituency, Sandeep Dikshit said, “Of course, I am proud to be contesting from here where my mother was CM from. But I have no references. I was ready to contest from anywhere.”
‘Meri Delhi, Meri Shaan‘ (My Delhi, My Pride) was Sheila Dikshit’s pitch for Delhi polls. Under Sandeep Dikshit, the Congress hopes and wants to bring this pitch back – to remind Delhiites that “Sheila Dikshit’s son will bring back those good old days of Delhi.”
