Congress likely to release list of Lok Sabha candidates for Delhi today

A day after All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Delhi PC Chacko announced that the Congress will go solo in the national capital, the grand old party is likely to announce the names of its candidates for all seven Lok Sabha seats today. Some reports suggest that the party may field Delhi unit president and former chief minister Sheila Dikshit from East Delhi.

Veteran Congress leader Sheila Dikshit's name is under "serious consideration" as the candidate from East Delhi, said a senior party leader, adding she may be fielded if her son Sandip Dikshit declines to contest.

According to sources privy to the development, the central election committee (CEC) of the Congress had finalised the names of its candidates for four seats on Thursday itself.

The party has also short-listed the names of former Delhi minister Yogandnand Shastri and Olympic medal winner Sushil Kumar for the South Delhi parliamentary seat.

"In view of significance of Purvanchali voters in the national capital, the party can field former MP Mahabal Mishra from West Delhi that has a sizeable population of the community belonging to Eastern UP and Bihar," sources said.

The party is likely to field former Delhi minister Rajkumar Chouhan from North West seat, former Union minister Kapil Sibal from Chandni Chowk, former state unit chief Ajay Maken from New Delhi and former MP J P Agarwal from North East Delhi constituency, the sources said.

Meanwhile, sources claim that both the parties (Congress and Aam Aadmi Party) are still looking into the possibility of alliance despite their leaders publicly talking tough.

As a last-ditch attempt to salvage possibility of the tie-up, the two sides may come on the table for talks, the sources said referring to Chacko's remarks at a press conference that "we are still ready (for alliance) if the AAP is willing to have an alliance in Delhi alone. We want to fight the BJP together."

Uncertainty over the alliance between the AAP and the Congress has been continuing for weeks now with the former demanding an alliance on 33 seats of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Goa, and Chandigarh. However, the grand old party has categorically stated that it will form an alliance in Delhi alone.

"We are not able to form an alliance as they have taken a difficult and impractical proposition. Congress is going to fight the election in Delhi on its own," Chacko had said.