Congress appoints Kirti Azad as Delhi Chief ahead of assembly polls

Congress has anunced  former BJP leader Kirti Azad as new Congress president of Delhi on Friday. post of party president in national capital had been vacant since death of former CM Sheila Dikshit on July 20 this year. According to rumours, he has beaten likes of Sandeep Dikshit - son of Sheila Dikshit and JP Aggarwal - veteran Congress leader of Delhi for top post.

Azad's previous stint with BJP

Kirti Azad was elected as Lok Sabha MP on BJP's ticket three times from Darbhanga in Bihar. His far, Bhagwat Jha Azad was, however, a Congress chief minister in Bihar. absence of a chief has impacted Congress's preparation for assembly election in Delhi, which is scheduled to happen early next year. Kirti Azad has a Sheila Dikshit connection to his political career as in 1998, he was defeated by Sheila Dikshit, who was brought by Congress from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi. Azad was elected as an MLA from Gole Market assembly constituency in Delhi in 1993.

READ | Delhi: Fmr MP Pappu Yadav vandalises Govt bungalow before vacating it

READ | Guru Nanak Dev's 550th anniversary celebrations to take place in Delhi

A struggle for Congress to finalise a name

Before finalising Azad, Congress leaders had tried to hard to select a name for Delhi unit Chief. Congress President Sonia Gandhi had met a delegation of Delhi Congress leaders and Delhi Congress in-charge PC Chacko but a decision on final name of Delhi unit chief could t be made. In February this year, ahead of Lok Sabha polls, Kirti Azad joined Congress. He contested election from Dhanbad which he lost to BJP candidate Pashupati Nath Singh by nearly 5 lakh votes. He had won 2014 election from Darbhanga as BJP candidate but he was suspended from party after he went public with allegations of corruption against former Union minister Arun Jaitley in 2015. 

Internal issues in Delhi Congress

Ahead of Assembly elections in Delhi, an internal fight in Delhi Congress is out in open and had caused a delay in anuncing president of Delhi Congress. Amidst internal fight, son of former Chief Minister (CM) of Delhi, late Sheila Dikshit, Sandeep Dikshit wrote an explosive letter to party in-charge for Delhi, PC Chacko in which as per sources, Dikshit has alleged that PC Chacko mentally harassed Sheila Dikshit in her last days.

READ | Delhi Congress internal fight lid off;Sandeep Dikshit writes to Chacko

READ | Delhi's air quality slips to poor, particulate matter level shoots up