Meet BJP's New Delhi candidate Nupur Sharma: The girl who plans to take on Kejriwal

Nupur Sharma can take heart from the fact that when her rival in this year’s Delhi election, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, took on Sheila Dikshit for the New Delhi seat in 2013, few expected him to win  as comprehensively as he did. However, in an election that has pretty much boiled down to an AAP versus BJP battle in the media, few will give the former Delhi University Students’ Union president a shot at beating Kejriwal in the New Delhi seat this time. Here’s what should you know about Sharma, who will take on Kejriwal for the New Delhi constituency: She’s a former student activist of the BJP Sharma was a part of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and held off the Congress’ student wing NSUI to win the Delhi University Student Union election in 2008. Sharma has an LLM from the London School of Economics, and while she reportedly comes from a family of diplomats and businessmen it had reportedly been clear very early that she would be in public life. [caption id=“attachment_2057399” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sharma is a spokesperson for the BJP. Ibnlive image[/caption] While DUSU president, Sharma had reportedly led a group of students to protest against former accused in the 2001 Parliament attack case, SAR Geelani, being invited to a talk and had reportedly heckled him and even said there was nothing wrong “if the entire country spat at him” Sharma is presently an office bearer in the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). She wanted to take on Kejriwal Sharma almost took on Congress’s Sheila Dikshit and Kejriwal in the 2013 Assembly polls for the New Delhi seat. While one report claims she wasn’t so keen to jump into the fray in 2013, which led to BJP’s Vijender Gupta becoming an also ran in the race, there was no such hesitation this time round. While her chief at the BJYM claims that Sharma had refused to move to Noida so that she could contest the New Delhi constituency as a local,  one report pointed out that even if she lost against Kejriwal it would help her rise in the BJP. The 30-year-old advocate has been a spokesperson for the party and has been since across channels and media outlets defending the party’s views. Delhi is a stepping stone to national ambitions In an interview with DNA, the 30-year-old advocate has said that he intends to be a part of national politics and has no fear about taking on Kejriwal. “The constituency demands a peoples’ representative who lives and works amongst them and works to the best of her ability to ‘solve’ their problems. For over 16 years now the constituency has largely remained leader-less as the two CM candidates were mostly MIA and unapproachable and not once did the constituents get a chance to meet them on a personal and regular basis except during election time,” Sharma told the newspaper. And despite the initial assessment that she’s being fielded in a contest she’s bound to lose, Sharma insists otherwise. “I am definitely not a scapegoat. I’m sorry but I’m a woman, an advocate, actually very well read. I have fought an election before. I know how it is,” she  told CNN-IBN