Congress announces main list of candidates, 54 in fray so far | Latest News Delhi - Hindustan Times
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Congress announces main list of candidates, 54 in fray so far

By, New Delhi
Jan 18, 2020 11:58 PM IST

Former ministers of Sheila Dikshit’s cabinet, heavyweights, and relatives of senior party leaders will lead the Congress in the February 8 Delhi Assembly elections. The Delhi Congress on Saturday released a list of 54 candidates who will fight the Delhi polls on the party’s tickets. The list features five former cabinet ministers — Arvinder Singh Lovely, AK Walia, Haroon Yusuf, Krishna Tirath and Narender Nath.

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The 16 constituencies for which the party is yet to announce names include New Delhi, the seat from which Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is contesting. Senior party leaders said the party is likely to contest four of the remaining seats in a partnership with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

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Relying on old heavyweights, the Congress has fielded Mateen Ahmed from Seelampur, Veer Singh Dhingan from Seemapuri, Talvinder Singh Marwah from Jangpura and Devender Yadav from Badli. The second generation of senior leaders also found a place in the list.

Delhi Congress chief Subhash Chopra’s daughter Shivani has been pitched from Kalkaji, former Delhi Assembly speaker Yoganand Shastri’s daughter Priyanka will fight the elections on the Congress ticket from RK Puram, and former Model Town MLA Kunwar Karan Singh’s daughter Akansha Ola is representing the party from the same constituency.

Sitting councillors such as Abhishek Dutt, Mukesh Goel, Mandeep Singh found a place in the list.

“We have thoroughly screened the applicants and finally come out with the list. Each candidate is worthy of a ticket from the party,” said PC Chacko, All India Congress Committee (AICC) Delhi in-charge.

Despite its strong line-up, the party will fight these elections without a chief ministerial face.

Former ministers and heavy weights

The party also fielded five former Delhi ministers.

Arvinder Singh Lovely, who had held portfolios such as education, urban development and transport, has been fielded from east Delhi’s Gandhi Nagar. He was elected from the same seat four times and was also the party’s candidate in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from east Delhi.

Former union minister of women and child development Krishna Tirath has been fielded from the reserved constituency of Patel Nagar.

The Congress party for the last three elections had fielded former Delhi Congress working president Rajesh Lilothia from this seat. This time, Lilothia will be contesting from Mangolpuri.

Seventy one-year-old former Delhi health minister AK Walia will be the party’s face from Krishna Nagar, which has traditionally been witness to a war of heavyweights. Incumbent Union minister of science and technology and the minister of health and family welfare Harsh Vardhan represented the constituency from 1993 to 2013.

In the 2015 elections, BJP’s then CM face Kiran Bedi had contested from the same seat.

Haroon Yusuf and Narender Nath have both been trusted with their old-time constituency Ballimaran and Shahdara.

The Congress fielded Mateen Ahmed from Seelampur, Talvinder Singh Marwah from Jangpura and Devender Yadav from Badli. All of these leaders have won from the same seats multiple times for the party in the past.

“The Congress had fielded so-called heavyweight candidates in 2015 too and they failed to win a single seat. We can see that many such candidates have been repeated,” said the AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP and Delhi’s assembly poll campaign in-charge Sanjay Singh.

Second generation

Many senior leaders from the Congress have passed on the baton to their children and spouses. Chopra’s daughter Shivani will represent the party from her father’s constituency Kalkaji, from where he has contested and won three times. She will be facing AAP’s Atishi.

Ali Mehndi, son of two-time MLA from Mustafabad Hasan Ahmed, has also been given ticket from the constituency.

Others having party connections included, Poonam Azad, the wife of Congress campaign in-charge Kirti Azad, is contesting from Sangam Vihar; Priyanka, daughter of five-time MLA from Mehrauli Yoganand Shastri is contesting from RK Puram.

Turncoats

Along with the old and the trusted, the Congress has also put their trust on those who have either come from other parties or had left the party to rejoin the Congress.

Alka Lamba, former MLA from Chandni Chowk, joined the party last year and is known to be a dynamic leader. She will be facing former Congress MLA from the same seat Prahlad Sawhney who is now contesting from AAP.

Former Dwarka legislator Adarsh Shastri, who joined the Congress on Saturday itself, has been given a ticket from Dwarka constituency. Curiously, he will be facing Vinay Mishra, the son of popular Purvanchal leader and former Congress MP Mahabal Mishra.

Leaders such as Arvinder Singh Lovely from Gandhi Nagar, Arvinder Singh from Deoli and Tirath from Patel Nagar have also come back from their brief stints in the BJP.

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