Cong in direct fight with BJP on 45-50 seats in Delhi Assembly election: Sandeep Dikshit

The Congress is in a direct fight with the BJP on 45-50 seats out of the 70 Assembly seats in Delhi, while the AAP could emerge as the main rival in 8-9 constituencies, former MP and Congress candidate from New Delhi seat Sandeep Dikshit said on Sunday.

“The AAP is battling anti-incumbency and by their own assessment they are losing at least 32 seats on which they wanted to replace their MLAs,” Dikshit told IANS, ahead of the Assembly elections likely to take place early next year.

He said the biggest warning sign for the AAP is that this anti-incumbency is not just against the local MLAs but also against the face of the party – Arvind Kejriwal.

Dikshit, son of three-time Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, said the AAP is starting on the back foot on 35-40 Assembly seats even before the announcement of elections, so you can imagine to which level their tally may fall to when actual voting takes place.

Talking about the possibility of facing Kejriwal in the Assembly elections, Dikshit said it will be a good contest that shall give him an opportunity to question the former Chief Minister over his lack of contribution to the constituency.

"I will present my report card as a former MP who has worked in the city for 10 years and question his performance,” he said, expecting a high percentage of voting in the constituency.

Reflecting on the debate on the Constitution in Parliament over the past two days, Dikshit said the government used attention diverting tactics by recounting failures of other parties rather than celebrating 75 years of the statute.

He slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for talking little about the Constitution and focusing more on the performance of previous Congress-led governments during the debate in Parliament.

PM Modi on Saturday tore into the Gandhi family and the Congress for repeatedly amending the Constitution, alleging that once they “tasted blood” they wanted to do it again and again.

He also accused Congress of murdering the spirit of the Constitution for personal interests, vote bank politics and display of arrogance, a charge denied by Dikshi.