NEW DELHI: Desperate to rediscover its relevance to the city’s electoral politics and wrest the administrative reins from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Congress will dive head-long into the poll battle relying on its old warhorses.
Senior leaders privy to the Congress’s plans said party president Sonia Gandhi has asked former Delhi MPs and MLAs to put themselves in fray for the February 8 elections in a bid to revive the Congress electorally in the national capital.
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Sonia met senior party functionaries on Monday evening to deliberate on poll preparations. It was during the meeting that she directed senior Delhi leaders — former MPs and MLAs — to consider contesting the polls.
The ruling Congress was decimated at the hands of AAP in the 2013 polls, with its seat tally dropping to 8. In the subsequent elections, two years down the line, the party couldn’t even open its account.
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According to Delhi Congress functionaries, the screening committee has finalised names for 13 assembly constituencies and has also prepared a tentative list of probables for another 20-25 constituencies.
The panel held a fresh meeting on Monday evening to pick names for the remaining seats. The complete list of party nominees will be placed before the Congress Working Committee, headed by Sonia, for the final nod. The first list of nominees is likely to be released by this week.
Also present in the meeting were former Union ministers Jai Prakash Agarwal, Ajay Maken and ex-Delhi minister and Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely, as well as former MLAs Naseeb Singh and Rajesh Lilothia.
All these leaders contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and lost. While the senior leaders are unwilling to the fight the polls, they may be swayed, a Delhi Congress leader said.