Congress to field Kiran Walia against Kejriwal “Not contesting from New Delhi or elsewhere,” Shazia Ilmi

Amid reports that Shazia Ilmi may contest against Arvind Kejriwal from New Delhi Assembly seat, the former AAP leader  said she will not fight the upcoming Assembly polls from anywhere.

In a late night tweet, Ilmi said, “Was invited to speak at the National Defence College. Couldn’t take media calls. I am not contesting from New Delhi or elsewhere, calm down folks.”

Earlier, Kejriwal told reporters at a press conference that, “she (Ilmi) is a citizen of this country and is free to contest from anywhere she wants.”

But hours after the press meet, Kejriwal took a swipe at Ilmi by re-tweeting one of her tweets, dated November 21, 2013 titled ‘Hypocrisy, thy name is BJP’.

Ilmi, who was in AAP at that time, criticises the BJP and the Congress over its funding in the tweet.

She had contested the 2013 Assembly polls from RK Puram and lost by a slender margin. Congress has decided to field former Delhi Minister Kiran Walia against Arvind Kejriwal in the prestigious New Delhi constituency where the AAP leader had handed a crushing defeat to Sheila Dikshit in the Assembly polls in 2013.

Kejriwal had defeated Dikshit by a huge margin of over 25,000 votes in the New Delhi seat. BJP is yet to announce its candidate for the seat. Walia was Minister for Health and Education in Dikshit’s Cabinet. She was defeated by AAP’s Somnath Bharti in Malviya Nagar constituency in the 2013 Assembly polls. She had won the seat in 1999, 2003 and 2008.