Hauz Khas is going for a bye-election after former Delhi chief minister vacated the Assembly seat in order to retain her South Delhi Parliamentary position. This was following BJP's debacle in the last Assembly elections in which the Congress swept the polls.

Forty-year-old Gautam's nomination from Hauz Khas is being seen as another sign of the party's attempts to sideline Swaraj. He has also been chosen for being a non-controversial young leader who is in touch with grass-root workers.

``He knows every single person of his constituency by name. That we thought is going to be very important in this election,'' state party chief Mange Ram Garg said.

Gautam was the Hauz Khas mandal secretary from 1980-'90 and also district general secretary from 1984-'90. He was the mandal president between 1995-'97. Apart from Aarti Mehra, former MLC Rajesh Sharma and Amal Nath Kumar were also in the race for the Hauz Khas ticket.