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The Congress on Thursday released its first list of 21 candidates for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections.
The party has fielded former Lok Sabha MP Sandeep Dikshit from the New Delhi constituency which has been the seat of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal. He has represented the New Delhi constituency in the Delhi Legislative Assembly since 2015 and from 2013 to 2014.
Delhi Congress president Devender Yadav has been nominated from Badli seat, while party spokesperson Ragini Nayak has been fielded from Wazirpur. The AAP MLA from Seelampur, Abdul Rehman, who joined the party just two days ago, has also been fielded from the same constituency.
The list came a day after AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal once again ruled out the possibility of an alliance with the Congress amid reports that the two parties could join hands for the election in the capital. In a post on X, Kejriwal said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will contest the election on its own strength in Delhi.
“There is no possibility of any alliance with the Congress,” the former Delhi chief minister said.
Delhi BJP Spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that there is nothing unexpected in the list of candidates released by the Delhi Congress.
“The experience of the old 2013 and the recent 2024 Lok Sabha elections shows that the Congress joins hands with the Aam Aadmi Party at the last minute. We hope that the Congress will contest the elections at the last minute and will not run away by forming an alliance with AAP,” he said.
Earlier this week, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) released its second list of candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in Delhi. The list announced the names of 20 candidates. The Arvind Kejriwal-led party changed former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia’s seat from Patparganj. He will now contest from Jangpura seat.
Awadh Ojha has been made a candidate from Sisodia’s old seat Patparganj. The names in the list include Manish Sisodia from Jangpura, Dinesh Bhardwaj from Narela, Surender Pal Singh Bittu from Timarpur, Mukesh Goel from Adarsh nagar, Rakesh Jatav Dharamrakshak from Mangolpuri and Pradeep Mittal from Rohini.
With AAP’s decision to fight solo, there will be a triangular contest in the Delhi assembly elections, with AAP, Congress, and BJP eyeing power. In the past two assembly elections, in 2015 and 2020, AAP won 67 and 62 seats, respectively, while the BJP secured three and eight seats in the 70-member legislature. The Congress drew a blank in both elections.
