Congress likely to announce candidates for 7 Lok Sabha seats in Delhi today

The Congress party is likely to announce the names of its candidates from all the seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital on Sunday, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee chief Sheila Dikshit said on Saturday. A list of probable candidates has been sent to Congress president Rahul Gandhi who will pick the final names.

Sheila Dikshit’s name was also added in the list of probable candidates from the Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha seat. Speaking about her contesting from the constituency, the former Delhi chief minister said, “I have also heard about it. Let the party decide.”

According to sources, former Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely is expected to contest from East Delhi seat, Ajay Maken from New Delhi, wrestler Sushil Kumar from West Delhi, Ramesh Kumar from South Delhi and J P Agrawal from North East Delhi.

On West Delhi seat, the party was trying to field a prominent Purvanchali celebrity, but the plan did not materialise. A former MP from the seat, Mahabal Mishra, is front-runner as party candidate on the seat due to his Purvanchali roots, sources claimed.

The development comes amid the alliance talks between the Congress and the AAP reaching a stalemate. AAP said an alliance just in Delhi is not possible after the Congress refused to have a tie-up anywhere else. The AAP insisted on including Haryana in alliance while Congress stuck to 4-3 formula of seat sharing for Delhi alone.

However, sources say that even though the possibility of formation of an alliance has been completely closed in Haryana, the AAP is still open to alliance in the national capital in 5:2 formula with five seats for the ruling party.