The ones who come to her are those who go on pleading their cause for years but never get tickets.

But there are also ``the chosen few'' who don't have to run around but get tickets anyway.

In every one of the 70 Assembly constituencies in the city there are a few elderly Congressmen who have been waiting years for the one chance to contest.

They say they do not belong to any camp -- the so-called Bhagat camp, or the Tytler lobby, the Sajjan faction or even the Dhawan coterie. They feel that being ``plain'' Congressmen is not good enough a criterion anymore to be given tickets. But nonetheless, they still apply for tickets every time an Assembly or council election is announced.

S.K. Puri has been trying to get a ticket for the Patel Nagar seat since 1970. ``The Congress has been consistently losing from this seat because it give tickets to Punjabi candidates. But there are only 11,000 Punjabi votes out of 1,34,000 total votes and a majority of them are Bihari votes. In the last elections, the Congress candidate who was a Punjabi himself could only get 300 votes out of 11,000''.

He adds: ``I did not get the ticket in 1993 because I do not belong to either to the Bhagat lobby or the Tytler lobby which influence tickets in the area. I hope this time that no outsider is given a ticket''.

Khem Chand Saini, an aspirant from Jehangirpuri, is angry. ``We work for five years hoping that this time round we may get the ticket. But at eleventh hour, the party high command puts someone else before us,'' he says. ``Then they come and tell us that we have to work for the candidate. How can we suddenly support an outsider who does not even know what the local problems are? It is no wonder that the party is doing badly''.

Saini is in the fray for the ticket with 30 other aspirants. In 1993, his application for an Assembly ticket was lost in the tussle between Naresh Sharma belonging to the Dhawan camp and Shyam Sunder Tyagi from the Bhagat camp. The ticket finally went to Tyagi. And ``small fry'' like Saini were forgotten.

``This is a plum constituency as the Congress lost by only 300 votes in the 1993 polls from Adarsh Nagar. So a lot of senior leaders who want an easy ride into the Assembly want the ticket,'' he says. At one time, Delhi Congress president Sheila Dikshit was among those who had been eyeing the seat.

Some Congressmen are upset that their ideas are never implemented because of lack of support. Says G.B. Gupta, aspirant from Moti Nagar: ``I want to work toward covering the Najafgarh drain that has made the area living hell. I will raise 25 per cent of the cost on my own, if I get the chance''.

While he supported the then Congress candidate Anjali Rai because that had been the wishes of the high command, he feels, at least this time, he should be given a chance. ``People come and go. Rai is contesting from some other place now. But I am a resident and I want to improve my area.'' C.B. Mittal, a shopkeeper in Najafgarh, is also a ticket-aspirant. ``I don't have a hold in the party, so for that reason I may not get a ticket. But if Congress wants to win then it should see that there are 72,000 urban votes in the area and 50,000 rural ones. The ticket should go to an urban person.'' He offers to put the Najafgarh market on lease if he is given a chance. ``No one has even referred to this ever in their election speeches. How can Congress win with outsiders''?