LJP leader Shoaib Iqbal offered to withdraw his candidature from Chandni Chowk seat,if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decides to contest from there. "If the PM accepts the challenge of BJP leader L K Advani to contest the Lok Sabha election,he should contest from Chandni Chowk. I will withdraw my candidature and work wholeheartedly to ensure his victory," said Iqbal,National Vice President of LJP. At present,Union Minister Kapil Sibal is the Congress candidate from the seat. The Prime Minister has already made it clear that he has no intention to contest the Lok Sabha polls by pointing out that there were several Prime Ministers in the past who were from the Rajya Sabha and it was as per the Constitution. Besides he had also said that recently he had a bypass surgery and needs time to recover. Iqbal had contested the 1998 and 1999 Lok Sabha elections and was an important factor behind the defeat of Congress candidate JP Agrawal in both these polls as the contest had turned triangular in which he secured a good number of votes. Congress candidate Kapil Sibal won the seat in the last Lok Sabha elections after Iqbal withdrew from the contest under an understanding with Congress. Sibal had then defeated the BJP candidate Smriti Irani,the famous TV star known as Tulsi.
