Congress to announce together nominees for seven LS seats in Delhi

The Congress has finalised its nominees for four out of seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi and an official announcement is likely to be made soon, sources said Thursday. The central election committee of the party discussed the names of two-three probable candidates for each seat and finalised its nominees for four seats, they said. "The names of all the seven candidates will be announced together on a later date," All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge for Delhi P C Chacko told PTI after the meeting.

Earlier in the day, Chacko met Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Sheila Dikshit and discussed the matter. According to the sources, the party is yet to finalise its candidates for East Delhi, West Delhi and South Delhi constituencies. They said the party is likely to field former Union minister Kapil Sibal from Chandni Chowk, former Delhi minister Rajkumar Chouhan from North West seat, former state unit chief Ajay Maken from New Delhi and former MP J P Agarwal from North East Delhi constituency.

The sources said Dikshit's name was also under discussion as a probable from East Delhi seat. "The talk of her being fielded from East Delhi started after the possibility of an alliance with the AAP diminished. Her son Sandip Dikshit is also being considered as a candidate from East Delhi and if he declines, she may be fielded from that seat," one of the sources said. Chacko, however, evaded a categorical reply on the issue of alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), saying it will be taken up later. The AAP had on Wednesday rejected the Congress's offer for alliance in Delhi.

All the routes of alliance with the Congress have been closed, AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh had said. The Congress was eager for tie-up with the AAP in Delhi. The AAP, in turn, wanted such an alliance to extend to Haryana and Punjab as well. The talks between the two sides derailed after they failed to reach an agreement over seat-sharing in Delhi and Haryana. A senior Congress leader said that talks of alliance failed because AAP was making "unrealistic" demands. "The popular vote base of the AAP has eroded. They are no more their older version that won 67 out of 70 Assembly seats in Delhi in 2015," said the leader.

(With inputs from agencies.)