The Aam Aadmi Party wasted little time in announcing former Delhi minister Rakhi Birla as the candidate from Northwest Delhi. The party replaced Mahender Singh with Birla within a day after he withdrew his nomination citing lack of local party support and alleged that Birla had demanded Rs 7 lakh to campaign for him.
Birla, the former Delhi Women and Child Welfare minister and the AAP?s youngest cabinet member at 26 years, rubbished Singh?s allegations.
?I have not even met him. The allegations are baseless. He does not have any proof (to show that Birla had demanded money from him to campaign). These are small differences that people have in the party,? Birla said.
On Wednesday, just hours after the AAP declared her as Northwest Delhi?s candidate, Birla hit the ground running, addressing whirlwind rallies in all 20 assembly constituencies in the LS seat. At one such meeting in Prashant Vihar, Rohini, Birla related the work done by her as a Delhi minister.
?In the last 65 years, no MP or MLA has stepped outside their house at 1.30 on a cold winter night to provide justice to a woman who has been set ablaze for dowry. None of them have gone on a series of inspection rounds to check if night shelters were operating properly. I will tell people about the work done in Delhi in those 49 days by the AAP government. Jis tarah Dilli vidhan sabha mein jhaadu lagayi hai, waise hi Parliament mein jhaadu lagayenge,? Birla told the gathering.
Incidentally, Birla defeated the Congress? Raj Kumar Chauhan from the SC-reserved Mangolpuri constituency in the Delhi Assembly polls last December.
Since then, Birla has risen among the party?s ranks and is now considered a star campaigner, particularly in garnering Dalit votes. Having addressed important rallies in Rohtak, Kanpur and Gujarat, Birla is already being pitched as the party?s face of Dalits.
?She symbolises Dalit empowerment and is one of the success stories in the AAP which the party wants to showcase,? a party leader said.
Birla will contest the LS elections against Union Minister Krishna Tirath of the Congress and the BJP candidate and Dalit leader Udit Raj.
While the AAP had floated Birla?s name earlier this month for the Northwest seat, protests against her candidature and even a hunger strike had forced a rethink. After being assured by Gopal Rai that the party will not give a LS ticket to an MLA, the volunteers had called off their strike. The party had then named Singh its candidate.
On Wednesday, after Birla?s name was officially announced, a section of party workers said they would go on another hunger strike demanding that Birla?s candidature be withdrawn.
?The party leadership had said they will not give a ticket to any MLA. They have gone back on their promise. We plan to go on a hunger strike,? Sandeep Hooda, one of the five AAP members who sat on a hunger strike, said.
But Birla seems unperturbed. ?It does not matter to me who contests against me. In the Assembly elections, I defeated Congress bigwig Raj Kumar Chouhan in Mangolpuri by over 10,500 votes. It is only natural that there will be change. With the support of my volunteers, I am confident that
the Lok Sabha election results will be in the favour of the aam aadmi,? Birla said.
?There is not much of a difference between fighting an Assembly election and a Lok Sabha election. Only the area has extended substantially. The strategy and the issues are the same. The only hurdle is that there are just 20 days left for campaigning,? she said.
According to AAP spokesperson Deepak Bajpai, although Birla had applied for the party ticket long ago, her name was dropped due to the party?s policy of not giving tickets to MLAs.
?Despite being a strong contender, Rakhi?s name was not considered due to our policy. However, with a candidate withdrawing his application, we were pushed to a corner. Hence, we decided to give the ticket to the strongest contender possible,? Bajpai said.
