The Congress on Tuesday released its second list of 26 candidates for the Delhi Assembly elections, fielding candidates in key seats currently held by the AAP. Along with this, the Congress has announced 47 candidates for the elections to be held in February.
While it has fielded former MCD mayor Farhad Suri from Jangpura against AAP’s Manish Sisodia. Aam Aadmi Party gave tickets to former MLAs Asim Khan (Matia Mahal) and Colonel Devinder Sehrawat (Bijwasan).. Both of them joined the Congress on Monday.
Other AAP turncoats who were given tickets are former Raghuvinder Shokeen from Matiala and former AAP MLA from Babarpur Haji Mohammad Ishrak Khan.
The party fielded Mukesh Sharma from Uttam Nagar and Rajesh Lilotia from Seemapuri, both of whom served as MLAs from the same constituency in 2008.
Farhad Suri will contest from Jangpura while Jitendra Kumar Kochhar will contest from Malviya Nagar. The party also fielded MCD councilor Pushpa Singh in 2012 from Mehrauli.
Many of the candidates in the fray have either served as councilors or contested MCD elections, including Sushant Mishra from Rithala, Hanuman Chauhan from Mangolpuri, Satish Luthra from Shakur Basti, Satender Sharma from Trinagar, and Jai Prakash Panwar from Madipur. There are many faces of Youth Congress in the list.
Amid reports of Chief Minister Atishi announcing Alka Lamba’s candidature from Kalkaji constituency, party sources said the announcement was delayed because Lamba did not want to contest from the seat.
“Alka Lambaji is asking the party to give her ticket from another constituency, but the leadership is not agreeing and wants her to contest from Kalkaji,” said a party leader.
Lamba was elected from Chandni Chowk on an Aam Aadmi Party ticket in 2015, but she defected from the party. This followed an uproar in the Delhi Assembly over the Aam Aadmi Party government’s decision to revoke the Bharat Ratna awarded to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in September 2019. Lamba refused to support the proposal and joined the Congress a few days later. .
The party released the first list of 21 candidates earlier this month. Tuesday’s list came hours after Congress’ Central Election Committee (CEC) approved it.
Why should you buy our membership?
You want to be the smartest in the room.
You want access to our award-winning journalism.
You don’t want to be confused and misinformed.
Choose your subscription package