NEW DELHI: The Congress on Sunday announced its candidates for Lok Sabha elections in Delhi, fielding former JNU students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar from the North East Delhi constituency, JP Agarwal from Chandni Chowk, and Udit Raj for North West.
The Congress is contesting the elections in Delhi in alliance with AAP. Under the seat-sharing agreement, AAP is contesting East, South, West, and New Delhi seats.
Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit was not considered for North East where his name was almost finalized earlier. Party sources said Kumar’s name was proposed by senior leaders after the arrest of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. In a recent survey, Kanhaiya emerged more popular than the son of former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit.
Kumar will face two-time BJP MP Manoj Tiwari from the seat with a sizeable population of Purvanchalis (residents of eastern UP and Bihar) and Muslims. A Purvanchali himself, Kumar had contested in 2019 from Begusarai in Bihar from CPI, but lost.
Agarwal had won his last LS polls in 2009 from North East Delhi and lost to Manoj Tiwari in 2014. He will face BJP’s Praveen Khandelwal. Udit Raj, a former IRS officer, will fight for the Congress for the first time. He had won the North West seat in 2019 as a BJP candidate.