Turncoats Take ‘ Poll' Position In Race For Delhi

AT 4:30 pm on January 14, former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s grandson and AAP MLA from Dwarka, Adarsh Shastri, shared Education Minister Manish Sisodia’s tweet on ‘the successful journey of Delhi government schools.’

- Gulam Jeelani

At 11 pm on January 18, Shastri shared another tweet, this time by the Delhi Congress, which had a list of candidates. His name was also there.

In between, AAP had released all its names, excluding Shastri’s despite the fact that he had polled over 50% votes in 2015. This is not just one such instance.

All three parties are lapping up last-minute defectors, in their effort to win the high-stakes February 8 elections in the National Capital.

On Saturday, Delhi Congress chief Subhash Chopra called Shastri’s switchover a homecoming of sorts. Shastri’s grandfather Lal Bahadur Shastri was with Congress. Father Anil Shastri still is. “When I left a high-paying job, I thought an honest man (Arvind Kejriwal) would herald an era of clean politics. But I changed my opinion after AAP sold tickets, instead of giving them to committed volunteers,” said Shastri. He quit as Apple’s India sales head to join AAP in 2013.

The Congress list of 54 candidates, released on Saturday, also had Alka Lamba who is contesting from her previous seat Chandni Chowk. She won from there on an AAP ticket in 2015. BJP, in its list released on Friday, also fielded two leaders who had won in 2015 on AAP tickets. Anil Bajpai will contest from Gandhi Nagar, while Kapil Mishra will contest from Model Town.

Three other Congress turncoats — Sanjay Singh (Vikas Puri), Surendra Pal Singh Bittu (Timarpur) and SC Vats (Shakur Basti) — are also contesting for BJP.

AAP has also fielded nine defectors, including five Congress leaders who joined the party only a day before. Ram Singh Netaji (Badarpur) and Vinay Mishra (Dwarka) were among the last-minute turncoats.

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