NEW DELHI: The Congress’ top leadership Thursday cleared the names of 21 candidates for Delhi assembly elections slated to be held early next year. At a meeting of the party’s central election committee chaired by Mallikarjun Kharge, top leaders from Delhi and CEC members discussed the names of nominees and gave nod to 21 candidates.
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, CEC members Ambika Soni, Salman Khurshid, T S Singh Deo and Mushusudan Mistry were among those present at the meeting. Delhi Congress chief Devendra Yadav was also present during the deliberations.
Qazi Nizamuddin, the in-charge of the party’s affairs in Delhi, said, “In the last 10 years, Delhi has suffered a lot. The Centre and the Delhi government have been blaming each other for the bad conditions here.
“People have been suffering the consequences and they are now hell-bent on teaching these two governments a lesson,” he said.
Delhi in Congress chief Yadav said that he will surely contest the Delhi Assembly elections.
“I am not someone who is going to run away. Along with me, many of our senior leaders are on the list. We will release the list of 21 candidates in a few hours today. Soon, we will also release the second list,” he said.
“All categories have been taken care of in our list. You will also get to see new and young faces. I am happy that our leadership has held discussions with everyone,” Yadav said.
The Congress and AAP were earlier toying with the idea of holding a pre-poll alliance, but top leaders of both the parties, including Arvind Kejriwal and Yadav, have been openly saying that they will contest the Delhi polls alone and there will be no tie-up.
