Delhi polls: Arvind Kejriwal chooses New Delhi, Atishi Kalkaji; check who's contesting from where in AAP's final list

NEW DELHI: The New Delhi seat, which former CM Arvind Kejriwal is eyeing for a third time, is set to witness a fierce electoral contest, with Congress giving a ticket to former CM Sheila Dikshit's son Sandeep Dikshit and BJP likely to field Sahib Singh Verma's son Parvesh Verma.
AAP has placed its bet on several senior functionaries. Atishi, who saw a meteoric rise in the party when she became CM in Sept, will fight her second Vidhan Sabha polls from Kalkaji, where she is the incumbent MLA. She also fought the 2019 Lok Sabha polls but lost to cricketer Gautam Gambhir from East Delhi.

Another popular face, minister Saurabh Bharadwaj who has been an MLA from Greater Kailash since 2013, has also bagged a ticket from his home constituency. As a prominent figure in the party and govt, he actively challenged Raj Niwas on several matters, particularly regarding conflicts with the bureaucracy.
Earlier, AAP had released three lists comprising 11 candidates in the first, 20 in the second and one in the third. This time, 20 sitting MLAs have not been given tickets.
Five-time MLA from Matia Mahal, Shoaib Iqbal, who joined AAP in 2020, has been repeated. The deputy speaker of Delhi Assembly, Iqbal was an MLA in the 1993, 1998, 2003, 2008 and 2013 assemblies.
From Ballimaran, minister Imran Hussain, who holds the portfolios of food and civil supplies, has been given a ticket. He will face Congress leader and former minister Haroon Yusuf, who maintained his grip on the constituency from 1993 till 2013. However, he suffered his first defeat to Hussain in 2015, followed by another loss in 2020.
The party's popular Muslim face, Amanatullah Khan, has been given a ticket from Okhla. He has represented the constituency since 2015, and in the last assembly elections, he won with a record margin. His constituency was the epicentre of the anti-CAA protests in 2020, which became a major poll issue. A Delhi court recently granted bail to him in a Delhi Waqf Board case.
Dalit leader and former MCD councillor Kuldeep Kumar has been chosen from Kondli, where he is the incumbent MLA.
The latest list also has a few names who have been at the centre of controversy recently. For the Uttam Nagar constituency, AAP has picked Posh Balyan alias Pooja Naresh Balyan, wife of Naresh Balyan who was held recently for alleged links to gangster Kapil Sangwan.
For the Mehrauli constituency, the party has retained Naresh Yadav, who was recently sentenced by a Punjab court in a Quran desecration case. In Kasturba Nagar, AAP has replaced Madan Lal, the sitting MLA, with newcomer Ramesh Pehalwan, who joined the party on Sunday.
AAP had swept the previous Assembly elections, winning 62 seats out of 70. BJP had won the remaining eight seats.