Greater than twenty years after she made her debut within the Nationwide Capital’s political mainstream in opposition to former Delhi Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana, the Congress has picked Alka Lamba to tackle one other CM, this time a sitting one. In what is anticipated to be one of many high-profile battles, Lamba will tackle the Aam Aadmi Social gathering’s (AAP) Atishi from the Kalkaji constituency.
Congress insiders stated Lamba’s candidature was initially alleged to be introduced as a part of the social gathering’s first listing of candidates on December 12 however it was delayed since she was “not satisfied” about contesting from Kalkaji.
Lamba joined the Nationwide College students Union of India (NSUI), the scholars’ wing of the Congress, throughout her stint at Delhi College within the mid-Nineteen Nineties and was elected DU College students’ Union president in 1995 because the social gathering launched a “new wave of younger leaders” below the management of former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao.
A former NSUI president, Lamba subsequent rose via the ranks of the ladies’s wing of the social gathering, going from a basic secretary in 2002 to the president of the All India Mahila Congress in 2024. This, social gathering insiders stated, was due to her “boldness and glorious talking expertise”. She additionally served in a number of roles within the All India Congress Committee (AICC) and the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee.
In 2003, Lamba was picked to face BJP’s Khurana, dubbed “Dilli ka Sher” or the “Lion of Delhi”. A decade earlier, Khurana had change into the Nationwide Capital Territory’s first CM because the workplace was restored after 37 years and a Legislative Meeting was created. Nevertheless, she misplaced to Khurana from Moti Nagar in what ended up being the BJP chief’s final election.
Near the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Lamba shifted to the AAP and served as a spokesperson and campaigner. The next yr, the AAP fielded her from Chandni Chowk and he or she was elected MLA.
4 years later, in September 2019, as a furore erupted within the Meeting over a choice to go a decision in search of to revoke the Bharat Ratna conferred on former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi over the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Lamba refused to again it and returned to the Congress.
She was fielded once more from Chandni Chowk in opposition to Parlad Singh Sawhney, a Congress turncoat, however did not win this time.
A staunch critic of each the AAP and the BJP, Lamba final month took on former CM Arvind Kejriwal over “politics of faith” after he introduced that the AAP authorities would pay remuneration to monks and granthis in Delhi. “Former Chief Minister of Delhi @ArvindKejriwal ji got here to energy in opposition to corruption however as quickly as he got here to energy, he needed to lose his place as a result of similar corruption. At one time they (the AAP) had been bitter opponents of vote-bank politics; that they had come to alter the system; right now they’ve had a change of coronary heart; they’re competing to go two steps forward of the BJP within the politics of faith,” she alleged in a publish on X.
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