Soon after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday announced it is not ready to have an alliance only in the national Capital, the Congress is all set to contest the Parliamentary polls in the Delhi alone by fielding candidates on all the seven Parliamentary seats.
A senior Congress leader said that talks with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to forge an alliance have failed and we will contest all Lok Sabha seats in Delhi alone. “The party has already shortlisted names of the candidates and sent it to the party national president Rahul Gandhi for his approval,” he said.
Former Delhi Chief Minister and Congress Delhi unit president Sheila Dikshit name was making the rounds as the party’s probable candidate from East Delhi has now shown interest on Chandni Chowk seat. “If Dikshit is fielded from Chandni Chowk, former Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely could be East Delhi candidate,” he said.
Former South Delhi MP Ramesh Kumar was considered on the seat. Olympic medal winner Sushil Kumar’s name was also under consideration from South Delhi.On West Delhi seat, the party was trying to field a prominent Purvanchali celebrity but the plan did not materialise. Former MP from the seat, Mahabal Mishra, is front-runner as party candidate on the seat due to his Purvanchali roots, he added.
The Congress will likely declare its candidates before Monday. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won all the seven seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The nomination process for Lok Sabha polls in Delhi will conclude on April 23; nomination will not take place on Sunday.