Often criticised for nepotism by rival parties, the Congress has fielded at least five dynasts as candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in Delhi. But it is not the only party to do so. Even the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have nominated at least three candidates each who are kin of established politicians.
Dynasts in Congress
Poonam Azad, 53, wife of Congress campaign chief for the Delhi assembly election Kirti Azad, is the party’s candidate for Sangam Vihar assembly constituency. In 2003, Poonam had contested against the then Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit on a BJP ticket.
Following Kirti Azad’s suspension from the BJP in December 2015 —after he targeted the then finance minister Arun Jaitley over alleged irregularities and corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) which Jaitley headed at the time — Poonam quit the BJP in November 2016 to join AAP, saying that she was being sidelined. She joined the Congress in April 2017.
Congress candidate from Kalkaji, Shivani Chopra, is the daughter of three-time Congress MLA from the same constituency and Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) chief Subhash Chopra.
Priyanka Singh, daughter of former Delhi speaker and another three-time MLA Yoganand Shastri, is contesting from the RK Puram seat. Shastri was a two-term legislator from the Malviya Nagar constituency in Delhi between 1998 and 2008 before serving Mehrauli as an elected MLA in his third term from 2008-2013. Priyanka is the vice-president of Delhi Mahila Congress.
Other dynasts among Congress candidates include Adarsh Shastri, grandson of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, who is contesting from Dwarka. Shastri had fought and won the same seat in 2015 for the AAP but joined Congress earlier this month after being denied ticket by the Arvind Kejriwal-led party.
Congress candidate from Model Town and secretary of All India Mahila Congress, Akansha Ola, is the daughter-in-law of three-time Congress MLA from Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan, Brijendra Singh Ola.
Dynasts in BJP
Rajiv Babbar, son of former BJP MLA from Tilak Nagar OP Babbar, is the saffron party’s candidate from the same seat. Rajiv is the vice-president of the state unit of the BJP and had unsuccessfully contested from Tilak Nagar in 2015 and 2013 against AAP’s Jarnail Singh.
Former Delhi chief minister Sahib Singh Verma’s brother and sitting West Delhi MP Parvesh Verma’s uncle, Azad Singh, is the BJP candidate from Mundka assembly constituency in North-west Delhi. He, too, had contested and failed to win this assembly seat in 2013 and 2015, while he was still a councillor in the Municipal Corporation from ward no. 30. He was elected mayor of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation in 2013.
BJP has also fielded South Delhi MP Ramesh Bidhuri’s nephew Vikram Bidhuri from the Tughlakabad assembly constituency, a seat Ramesh Bidhuri had won thrice between 2003 and 2013.
Dynasts in AAP
Among the new faces that the AAP announced in its list of candidates in early January was Vinay Kumar Mishra from Dwarka. Vinay, who joined the party just days before it released its list of candidates, replaced AAP’s sitting MLA from the seat, Adarsh Shastri.
Vinay’s father Mahabal Mishra, a former West Delhi MP, has remained the Purvanchali face of the grand old party for more than a decade. Mahabal Mishra also represented the Nasirpur assembly constituency between 1998 and 2008 for the Congress and later won the Dwarka assembly constituency in 2008, when it came into existence after the redrawing of boundaries. Before that, he was a councillor in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi where he represented Dabri ward.
Vinay himself had contested from the Palam assembly constituency in 2013 on a Congress ticket.
Another Congress turncoat, Dhanwati Chandela, who switched over to AAP in August last year, is the party’s candidate from Rajouri Garden. She is a former MCD councillor and had unsuccessfully contested the 2013 assembly elections from the same seat. Her husband, Dayanand Chandela, has also been an MCD councillor and is a former two-time MLA from the Rajouri Garden constituency between 2003 (then Vishnu Garden constituency) and 2013.
The AAP has fielded Preeti Tomar, wife of former Delhi minister and MLA Jitender Singh Tomar, from Tri Nagar assembly constituency. Her name was announced after the Delhi Jitender was disqualified for giving false education details in his affidavit during the 2015 assembly elections.
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