NEW DELHI : The Congress has finalised its candidates for the three parliamentary seats the party will be contesting in alliance with the AAP in Delhi. The party has decided to field Sandeep Dikshit, former East Delhi MP and son of late Sheila Dikshit, from the Chandni Chowk constituency, former MP Jai Prakash Agarwal from North-East and IRS officer-turned politician Udit Raj for North-West reserved seat.
A formal announcement of their candidature is likely to be made next week. According to sources, there is a chance that the party may swap seats of Dikshit and Agarwal. Dikshit was an MP from East Delhi and is widely known in the adjoining North-East Delhi constituency. Agarwal has represented both Chandni Chowk as well as North-East Delhi in Parliament.
The Congress leadership has had many rounds of discussions on the winnability of candidates proposed by the state unit and finalised the names of Dikshit, Agarwal and Raj as the best candidates for the three constituencies. The BJP and the AAP have already announced all their candidates for Delhi.
It is ironic that Dikshit’s candidature will be supported by CM Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP, which stormed into power in the national capital on the promise of exposing the then CM Sheila Dikshit and sending her to jail.
The Congress was routed in the 2020 Delhi assembly elections, but stood second in five parliamentary constituencies in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The AAP stood second in two.