Congress leader Ajay Maken eyeing hat-trick from New Delhi seat

New Delhi, April 8: A microcosm of capital's urban elite and who's who in the political space, the prestigious New Delhi constituency has been the centre of a high-octane campaign where incumbent Ajay Maken is facing BJP's Meenakshi Lekhi and Ashish Khaitan of AAP.

Earlier represented by the likes of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani, the constituency is considered crucial due to its symbolic importance as it houses the country's power centres and Maken, Lekhi and Khaitan are putting up an engrossing fight to grab the seat.

"The entire nation's eyes are always fixed on New Delhi seat as it reflects the social characteristic of the country. The party which wins in New Delhi, wins in the country also," says BJP's Arun Jaitley.

In the first two Lok Sabhas, the seat was represented by freedom fighter Sucheta Kripalani. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was defeated by BJP's Jagmohan in a tight fight in the constituency in the 1999 Lok Sabha polls.

In the December 4 assembly polls, AAP had won seven out of 10 assembly seats under the constituency but Maken feels people will vote differently in the Lok Sabha election and AAP's support base has eroded significantly after it quit power in February.

In the assembly polls, Arvind Kejriwal had handed a shock defeat to then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in the New Delhi assembly constituency trouncing her by over 25,000 votes.

"I have done lot of development work in the area and I am very confident of winning the seat for the third time," says 50-year-old Maken. In 2004, Maken had defeated BJP's Jagmohan while in 2009 he came out victorious against Vijay Goel, also from BJP by nearly two lakh votes.

PTI