New Delhi: After long deliberations, the Congress announced a list of 54 candidates for the Delhi assembly elections. The party has banked heavily on woman power and named 10 women as candidates. It has also fielded four Muslim leaders.
Like the BJP, the Congress has also not named a candidate to face chief minister Arvind Kejriwal of Aam Aadmi Party from the New Delhi seat.
Many ministers, former MPs given tickets
The Congress list is a mix of new and old faces as also leaders who joined it from the ruling party. The party has tried to give maximum weight to the ability to win and a large number of former Delhi ministers, MPs and MLAs have been given tickets.
Though the Congress, which ruled Delhi from 1998 to 2013, was vanquished in the 2015 elections, when it did not win even a single seat in the 70-member house, it is relying on the work done by the Sheila Dikhsit governments in the past to once again appeal to the people for their support.
As such, a number of former Delhi ministers have been given tickets. These include Haroon Yusuf from Ballimaran, former Union minister Krishna Tirath from Patel Nagar (SC), A.K. Walia from Krishna Nagar, Narender Nath from Shahdara and Arvinder Singh Lovely from Gandhi Nagar.
Also read: Delhi Polls: BJP Announces 57 Candidates, Only Four Women Make the Cut
Though former minister Raj Kumar Chauhan, who had moved to the BJP after being denied the Lok Sabha ticket from North West Delhi, recently met Sonia Gandhi and is expected to return to the Congress fold, he has not been given the ticket from Mangolpuri (SC), which he represented for several terms. Instead the party has gone with its Delhi unit working president and former MLA, Rajesh Lilothia.
No name yet to take on Kejriwal
While AAP has not announced any name to take on Kejriwal yet, it has fielded Laxman Rawat to take on deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia from Patparganj. Earlier, the BJP had announced another newcomer, Ravi Negi, from this seat.
Congress has also decided its candidate from Kalkaji, the seat from which Atishi of AAP would be contesting. While in the past Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Subhash Chopra has represented this seat three times, this time the party has fielded his daughter, Shivani Chopra.
Newcomers accommodated
The party has also awarded several leaders who joined it recently. It has given a ticket to former AAP leader Alka Lamba from Chandni Chowk. Lamba, who was a student leader of Congress before she moved to AAP and won the last assembly election from Chandni Chowk, got the nod ahead of former MP and Delhi Congress president J.P. Agarwal.
Former BJP MP Kirti Azad, who often also contested against Sheila Dikshit from New Delhi constituency, but had joined the Congress recently and was made the chairman of its election campaign committee has also been accommodated by the party. His wife, Poonam Azad, has been given the ticket from Sangam Vihar.
Also read: Delhi: AAP Women Leaders Want More Representation, but Put Party’s Interests First
The Congress has also fielded former AAP legislator and grandson of former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, Adarsh Shastri, from Dwarka. Interestingly, he would now take on Vinay Mishra of AAP from the seat. Mishra is the son of former Congress MP Mahabal Mishra and had joined the ruling party recently.
Alliance with RJD on the cards
The announcement of tickets by Congress has come in the backdrop of several senior leaders being called by Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi earlier this week and being convinced to contest the polls with all seriousness. Following her nudge, some of them, like Lovely, had already started campaigning in their constituencies.
The Congress is expected to leave some seats for the Rashtriya Janata Dal as well this time. The party of Lalu Prasad Yadav has a strong influence among Muslim and Poorvanchali voters. In the past too, it has won seats on its own in Delhi. The Congress is believed to have kept four seats for its new alliance partner.
Meanwhile, the Bahujan Samaj Party also announced its first list of 42 candidates. The names announced by it include those of former AAP MLA Narayan Dutt Sharma who will again be contesting from Badarpur. He shifted to BSP after AAP decided to give the ticket from the constituency to former legislator Ram Singh Netaji, who had won the seat on a BSP ticket in 2008.