Cong meet identifies 35 nominees

A consensus on the names of about 35 Assembly poll candidates was arrived at on Tuesday in the first meeting of the Delhi Congress election committee which was attended, among others, by former chief minister Sheila Dikshit.

The meeting chaired by Congress general secretary P C Chacko agreed to give party president Sonia Gandhi to take the final decision on candidates and authorised Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh to send names of three probable candidates for each of the 70 Assembly seats, a party leader said.

Dikshit’s presence at the meeting sent a strong message of unity within the ranks as a group of Delhi Congress leaders are allegedly not keen on giving her a major role.

Dikshit came to the meeting before time and left the meeting early, said party leader, adding that some other leaders of the 29-member election committee did not turn up.

“The party has decided to re-nominate all the eight MLAs who won the last election and identified 25 other nominees who could get the party ticket in the election,” a leader said.

 “The first list may be out before December 25 and it may have names of about 35 candidates,” said a party leader, hinting that A K Walia and Subhash Chopra could also figure in the first list.

 The Congress, which suffered a big defeat in the 2013 Assembly polls which reduced its numbers in the House from 40 to eight, has also decided to release names of its candidates in phases.  

Election manifesto committee chief A K Walia said: “We are in touch with groups of professionals and residents to identify the issues of their concern.” “The response on the Facebook to suggestions sought for manifesto is very good,” he said.