Congress - AAP Deliver Delhi to the BJP

NEW DELHI: Opposition leaders had set the ball for Congress-AAP unity in Delhi rolling, Congress and AAP derailed the initiatve, and finally strongman Sharad Pawar came in to bring the two together for a united fight against the BJP in all the seven Lok Seats of the national capital. But he too did not succeed with the Congress announcing the end of talks and efforts with declaration of six candidates, that included former chief minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit.

Dikshit was completely opposed to the alliance, and lobbied strongly against it. She is now the candidate from North East Delhi. She will be contesting Dilip Pandey from AAP and Manoj Tiwari from the BJP. Ajay Maken who has been advocating an alliance with AAP as the only way to win the seats, drawing flak from his party, is the Congress candidate from New Delhi. He will be up against AAP's Brajesh Goel with the BJP still to announce its candidate.

All seven Lok Sabha seats were won by the BJP in the last 2014 parliamentary elections with big margins.

AAP holds sway in pockets of Delhi and has a couple of good candidates in South and East Delhi.

However, given the high impact of television channels here, and security issues such as Pulwama and Balakot, the BJP is confident that it will pull through now. Sources said that the party was worried about an opposition alliance that could have impacted adversely on some of the seats, but now the “way to victory is clear.”

The candidates announced so far by the three parties in the fray are:

Congress (yet to announce from South Delhi)

1. Sheila Dikshit - North East Delhi

2. Ajay Maken - New Delhi

3. J.P.Aggarwal - Chandni Chowk

4. Arvinder Singh Lovely - East Delhi

5. Rajesh Lilothia - North West Delhi

6. Mahbal Mishra - West Delhi

BJP (has declared just four)

1. Harsh Wardhan - Chandni Chowk

2. Manoj Tiwari - North East Delhi

3. Pravesh Verma - West Delhi

4. Ramesh Bidhuri - South Delhi

AAP (yet to announce its West Delhi candidate)

1. Pankaj Gupta - Chandni Chowk

2. Dilip Pandey - North East Delhi

3. Atishi - East Delhi

4. Brajesh Goel - New Delhi

5. Gugan Singh - North West Delhi

6. Raghav Chaddha - South Delhi