MCD polls litmus test for Maken: Dikshit

Former chief minister Sheila Dikshit today said the MCD polls are a litmus test for the Congress's Delhi unit chief Ajay Maken and hit out at Arvinder Singh Lovely, who quit the party to join the BJP, terming him an "opportunist".
She said that if Congress manages to win a "good number" of seats in the municipal corporation elections, then Maken will prove his detractors in Delhi Congress wrong.
"Let us wait for the election results when we will be really able to judge whether our impression is correct or incorrect. If Congress wins a good number of seats then what we are thinking would be proved wrong," she said when asked about questions on Maken's style of functioning.

Dikshit's name was not included in the list of party's top campaigners although Maken had claimed that he had a written to her for participating in the campaigning for party candidates.
Maken has faced criticism from some senior leaders of Delhi Congress over ticket distribution for the elections. A former member of the Dikshit regime AK Walia had threatened to quit the party in protest against Maken.
Dikshit hit out at Lovely saying he lacked commitment to the Congress ideology and joined the BJP for "personal gains".
"Lovely had been minister in the Congress government and a DPCC president. As an opportunist he has gone away from here. Congress gave him everything he deserved. He did not seem to have neither patience nor commitment to the ideology of the Congress and he went away for personal gains," Dikshit told NDTV.