Mahabal Mishra confident of winning Dwarka, says AAP imported candidates for Delhi elections

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader and Dwarka constituency candidate Mahabal Mishra is fighting hard to regain the seat which his party lost to Bharatiya Janata Party's Praduymn Rajput in 2013. In fact Congress was pushed to the third place as Aam Aadmi Party made a spectacular debut with it candidate Ravi Kumar Suryan coming second with 37,537 votes.

Mishra sounds confident that Congress is on a comeback in Delhi as according him the main fight is between his party and the BJP with AAP no longer a force. He hit out at the AAP for not selecting a local leader but bringing an 'outsider' to contest from the seat.

"AAP ko yahan se koi aam aadmi nai mila, Bombay se laye hai elections ke liye. (AAP could not find a common man to contest polls and instead brought someone from Mumbai," Mishra says.

The former MP was referring to Adarsh Shastri, the grandson of former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, who joined AAP before Lok Sabha elections. He contested the general election from Allahabad constituency in Uttar Pradesh but lost and is now in the fray from Dwarka.

While BJP has roped in hundreds of MPs, chief ministers and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the high voltage campaign to the 70-member Assembly, the Congress campaign is led by party President Sonia Gandhi, Vice President Rahul Gandhi and party candidates.

Mishra adds, "These are state elections and not the country's." He also questions the need for Modi to address rallies and jansabhas in the national capital.

On February 1, Modi addressed a rally at Dwarka and accused AAP and Congress of colluding to grab power in the capital. He accused both the parties of spreading lies to malign the BJP and mislead voters.

When asked about former union minister Krishna Tirath joining the BJP and accusing the Congress of losing its culture, Mishra says, "The party gave her everything and it is not right on her part to say such things."

Leaving no stones unturned, Mishra is campaigning extensively across the constituency. He faces sitting BJP MLA Praduymn Rajput and AAP's Adarsh Shastri.