Summary:
“If we are to get three seats, we would definitely want at least one of the two seats across the Yamuna — that is East or North East Delhi — apart from New Delhi and either Chandni Chowk or Northwest Delhi,” said a senior Congress leader, who wished to remain anonymous. NEW DELHI: If convincing Congress for an alliance in Delhi was tough for Aam Aadmi Party, reaching a consensus on seat distribution is going to be tougher. “We would want to contest on seats which have a sizeable number of minority, backward and SC votes.”While North East Delhi has approximately 20% Muslim, 17% Dalit and 14% backward caste votes, East Delhi has 15% Muslim, 17% SC and 22% backward caste votes. While Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit’s son represented East Delhi twice – in 2004 and 2009 — party veteran Jai Prakash Agarwal, who won from Chandni Chowk thrice, was shifted to North East Delhi in 2009 and won comfortably.Interestingly, AAP has named its two strongest leaders – Atishi and Dilip Pandey – for East and North East Delhi constituencies and would be unwilling to withdraw any of them. AAP seems to have faltered in this art by exposing how impatient it has been for a poll pact with Congress,” said a source..