Congress on Tuesday declared 56 of its candidates in the first list for Delhi assembly elections granting the party tickets to 42 sitting MLAs including all its Ministers.
The list carries the stamp of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who will contest from New Delhi seat, and is seeking to stage a comeback for the fourth time in a row. While Dikshit was strongly in favour of granting party tickets to all sitting MLAs, Delhi Congress chief J P Agarwal had opposed renominating certain legisltors.
The lone sitting MLA, who has not yet been given the ticket, is Daya Nand Chandela from Rajouri Garden who has criminal cases against him. Congress has fielded former BJP councillor Vinod Kumar Monga from Krishan Nagar assembly seat against BJP's Chief Ministerial candidate Harshavardhan.
Monga was a confidante of Harshavardhan but had defected to Congress recently. The Congress list, which includes 3 women, was released by AICC general secretary Madhusudan Mistry after the party's Central Election Committee chaired by Sonia Gandhi cleared it.
Revenue Minister Arvinder Singh will contest from Gandhi Nagar, Health Minister A K Walia from Laxmi Nagar and Food and Civil Supplies Minister Haroon Yusuf from Ballimaran assembly seats.
PWD Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan will contest from Mangol Puri seat, Transport Minister Ramakant Goswami from Rajinder Nagar and Education Minister Kiram Walia from Malviya Nagar seat. The party granted tickets to Goswami and Walia despite opposition from local Congress leaders.
Speaker Yoganand Shastri will contest from Mehrauli and deputy Speaker Amrish Singh Gautam will contest from Kondli (SC) seat. Congress also fielded former RJD legislator Asif Mohammad Khan from Okhla. Khan, who also has a few cases against him, had defected to Congress.
The ruling party has also fielded former BSP legislator Ram Singh Netaji from Badarpur assembly constituency after he joined Congress.
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