Lawyer v. lawyer for New Delhi Lok Sabha seat as BJP's Bansuri Swaraj and AAP's Somnath Bharti battle it out

As the national capital gears up for the Lok Sabha elections on May 25, voters from the New Delhi constituency will have the option of choosing between two lawyers, among others..Bansuri Swaraj of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and INDIA Bloc candidate Somnath Bharti will go head-to-head for the seat. While the BJP announced Swaraj’s candidature in March, Bharti, a sitting Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from South Delhi’s Malviya Nagar constituency, was nominated on April 14 to fight for the coveted seat..The winner of this contest will become one of the few parliamentarians with a legal background. A 2019 study showed that only 4% of the 542 MPs elected to the 17th Lok Sabha had law degrees. .Swaraj, 40, is the daughter of late Union Minister Sushma Swaraj. She enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi in 2007 and had been practicing law till she entered into the political fray. She also held the office of Additional Advocate General of Haryana while carrying out her private practice. Among others, she has represented Lalit Modi and the Chandigarh mayoral candidate who was recently disqualified by the Supreme Court. .Post her candidature, the Supreme Court directed for the deletion of Swaraj’s name from the order granting bail to AAP leader Sanjay Singh in the Delhi Excise Policy case after the Enforcement Directorate's counsel pointed out that it had been inadvertently included. .Forty-nine year-old Bharti, on the other hand, achieved his degrees in MSc from IIT Delhi in 1997 and LLB from Delhi University, following which he started practicing in the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court of India.In 2009, he has fought for Vikram Buddhi, an IITian from Mumbai who was incarcerated in a United States jail. He won the assembly elections from the Malviya Nagar constituency representing AAP in 2013 and held Law, Tourism, Administrative Reforms, Art & Culture portfolios as a Minister in the Government of Delhi from December 2013 to February 2014..Bharti again won the Malviya Nagar assembly seat in 2015 and has held the position of the Vice-Chairman of the Delhi Jal Board.According to available data, six criminal cases were pending against Bharti until 2019.He was convicted in one of the cases and the punishment was upheld by a Delhi court on March 23, 2021. The Delhi High Court, however, suspended his sentence the next day..Battleground New Delhi .According to the Election Commission of India, while there were 16,15,994 electors in the electoral list in the New Delhi parliamentary constituency, the voter turnout remained at 57%, with 9,19,056 persons exercising their franchise in 2019.The New Delhi seat comprises the assembly constituencies of Karol Bagh, Patel Nagar, Moti Nagar, Delhi Cantt, Rajinder Nagar, New Delhi, Kasturba Nagar, Malviya Nagar, RK Puram and Greater Kailash.All ten constituencies are currently represented by AAP MLAs..How important is winning the New Delhi seat? .The New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency is one of the oldest of the seven parliamentary constituencies and has witnessed some political stalwarts and prominent names such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee (BJP), LK Advani (BJP) and Rajesh Khanna (INC) representing it in the past.BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi, who was elected from the New Delhi constituency for two consecutive terms previously, is also a lawyer. But can winning the seat mean anything for first time Lok Sabha candidates such as Swaraj and Bharti? .Professor Tanvir Aeijaz, who teaches politics and public policy at Delhi University, doesn’t give much credence to the New Delhi Lok Sabha seat, but agrees it is a coveted seat.Aeijaz says the fact that all ten assembly constituencies in New Delhi were won by AAP indicated an element of anti-incumbency or maybe fatigue in terms of the performance.But with top brass of AAP, including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, behind bars on charges of corruption by the Enforcement Directorate, the party’s Lok Sabha candidates are bound to face the heat. .The political expert, however, says the situation might be able to generate sympathy for Kejriwal's party owing to a sizeable number of AAP supporters in Delhi.“It might generate sympathy because die-hard fans do not buy such kind of an argument so easily unless it's finally proved,” said Aeijaz, who is also the Vice-Chairman at Centre for Multilevel Federalism in Delhi.When asked if lawyers make for able lawmakers, the expert believes that people’s representation cannot be viewed from the prism of profession. “A representative must represent people because they have to think they have to take decisions on people's behalf, not on law books,” said Aeijaz. He concluded,“Of course, good lawyers and genuine lawyers and professionals and those who can supplement their representation through skills that they have acquired in their profession will always prove better. But there is a flip side, as politicians generally work in their own self-interest and rather misuse their professional skills.”.The political landscape is no stranger lawyers using their prowess to their advantage. Legal professionals, cutting across party lines, have not only held crucial political portfolios, but have also lent their legal acumen in fighting cases and rescuing fellow politicians from legal tangles when not in power.In the courtroom of democracy, every vote cast in favour will be a testament to the faith of the electorate. And in New Delhi, two lawyers-turned-politicians look to make an indelible mark in the political landscape.