The Congress on Monday released a list of six candidates for the Delhi Lok Sabha seats, fielding Delhi party chief and former chief minister Sheila Dikshit from North East Delhi against BJP candidate and sitting MP Manoj Tiwari.
The party has fielded Ajay Maken from New Delhi, JP Agarwal from Chandni Chowk, Arvinder Singh Lovely from East Delhi, Rajesh Lilothia from North-West Delhi and Mahbal Mishra from West Delhi.
The party has left out one seat, South Delhi, where it had planned to field Ramesh Kumar, the brother of 1984 anti-Sikh riots accused Sajjan Kumar. The move has, however, provoked anger from Sikh groups.
After being fielded from North East Delhi, Sheila Dikshit said, “I will do my best to fulfil the responsibility given to me. I have contested from here earlier, I know the people here and they know me. We had started Metro from here, our reputation is of working for the people.”
The announcement came after talks for a tie-up with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) failed in the national capital as the Rahul Gandhi led party wanted a tie-up only in Delhi while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) wanted the alliance to be forged in Haryana as well.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP had weeks before announced candidates in all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi after it accused the Congress of an “irresponsible” attitude towards an alliance.
However, the grand old party has claimed that it was the AAP that had backed off from the alliance deal.
Earlier last week, the AAP had said that there will be no alliance with the Congress in Haryana after the grand old party refused to have a tie-up in any other state apart from Delhi.
The Congress on Sunday announced its candidates for five seats in Haryana after AAP named three candidates in alliance with Dushyant Chautala’s JJP.
The AAP has been trying to form an alliance with the Congress since before the start of the Lok Sabha elections. The AAP was reportedly trying to push for five seats for itself in Delhi and two to Congress. It was also seeking an alliance in Haryana and Chandigarh but Congress has asserted that the pact should be for Delhi alone.
Elections to the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi will be held on May 12. The results will be declared with the rest of the country on May 23.