Lok Sabha elections 2019: Congress releases first list with four names

The Congress on Thursday finalised its candidates for four out of the seven seats in Delhi for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, senior party leaders said.

Delhi Congress in-charge PC Chacko on Thursday evening said the party’s chief election committee had decided on candidates from Chandni Chowk, Northeast Delhi, Northwest Delhi and New Delhi constituencies.

In a meeting of the committee, convened by Congress president Rahul Gandhi, it was decided that senior leader Kapil Sibal will represent the party from Chandni Chowk, Ajay Maken from New Delhi, JP Agarwal from Northeast Delhi and Raj Kumar Chauhan from Northwest Delhi .

Apart from Chauhan, who is a former legislator from Mangolpuri in Northwest Delhi, all other candidates have formerly been MPs from their respective constituencies.

In 2014, Sibal, Maken and Agarwal had lost their seats to BJP candidates.

“The names have been finalised for four seats. The names for the remaining three seats are yet to be decided. That will be done in a day or two,” Chacko said.

He said candidates will son be named in the remaining three seats —South, West, and East Delhi.

“The leaders could not come to an agreement for the remaining three seats. But that will be done soon,” he added.

Chacko had earlier met the party’s state president, Sheila Dikshit, at her residence on Thursday to shortlist candidates.

The names were presented before the election committee.

He said the omission of three seats was not indicative of a decision on the alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the elections. Chacko said, “I do not want to talk about the alliance unless a decision is taken. But it is protocol that we submit the names of Congress candidates from all seven seats.”

Although Congress leaders are keeping quiet about the fate of the alliance, AAP leaders Wednesday said talks with the Congress had been called off after the latter refused to take the seat-sharing partnership beyond Delhi.

“The AAP has officially opted out of an alliance with the Congress. We will contest the Lok Sabha polls on our own. This message has been conveyed to the Congress now,” senior AAP leader and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh had told reporters Wednesday.

The AAP wanted an alliance with the Congress in Haryana, Punjab and Delhi, and were willing to offer three seats to
Congress in Delhi in return for two seats for itself and three for Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) in Haryana. The Congress, however, was willing to offer AAP and JJP one seat each in Haryana.

Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel also met Dikshit at her residence Wednesday and asked her to wait for two more days before going ahead with Plan B in case the alliance with the AAP does not work out

First Published: Apr 12, 2019 04:31 IST