New Delhi, May 08: One of Delhi's smallest Lok Sabha constituencies, Karol Bagh is unique in two ways - it is the city's only seat reserved for scheduled castes and is set to send a woman candidate to Parliament for the fourth time in a row. BJP candidate Anita Arya, who represented the constituency in the dissolved Lok Sabha, is locked in a virtually straight contest with Krishna Tirath of Congress in the area which has one of Delhi's most popular marketplaces.

Arya, a former Delhi Mayor who had defeated late Congress leader Babu Jagjivan Ram's daughter Meira Kumar in 1999 by over 12,000 votes, is facing a stiff challenge this time. Tirath, Deputy Speaker in Delhi Assembly, who has returned to the Lok Sabha fray after 12 years, says she is confident that her "absentee" opponent will be routed.

"She (Arya) is an outsider from Rajasthan and could pass through the Karol Bagh market without anybody recognising her," Tirath claims. Karol Bagh was once an area dominated by scheduled castes and hence its reserved status. But, today they account for less than 40 per cent of its over five lakh voters as most of them sold their land to traders and members of upper castes and moved to outlying areas of the city.

Bureau Report