Meet Arvind Kejriwal's Rival, a London School of Economics Graduate

New Delhi: Arvind Kejriwal's rival in next month's Delhi election is a London School of Economics graduate who fought her last election in college. Nupur Sharma, 30, the BJP's candidate in the New Delhi assembly seat, says "this will be an election being fought to be won."

Ms Sharma, a lawyer, was earlier with the BJP's youth wing, and a former Delhi University Students Union president. She calculates that this gives her seven more years of political experience on Mr Kejriwal, who launched his Aam Aadmi Party in 2012.

"If you are trying to say I am a scapegoat, no I am not. Mr Kejriwal won an election and ran away," she told NDTV, offering it up as her biggest weapon against a rival who is widely believed to have been handed a walkover win by the BJP.

"When you betray people's trust then it shows your own intention of serving the people," she added.

Ms Sharma is one of the two names that drew maximum attention when the BJP last night released a list of 62 candidates for the February 7 Delhi assembly polls. The other prominent candidate is Kiran Bedi, who is contesting from Krishna Nagar.

In a departure from its template for other state polls, the party has named Ms Bedi as its chief ministerial candidate, a move that many say is the BJP's assessment of a new kind of voters in Delhi, who don't follow traditional election arithmetic.

"I think what the people today are asking for is one who is 'karmath' (who can work), somebody who sticks to their stand and somebody who is willing to deliver and definitely not willing to run away," Nupur Sharma said.