Delhi Assembly Elections: Congress releases 2nd list, Farhad Suri to take on AAP's Manish Sisodia

The Congress party has released its second list with 26 candidates for Delhi Assembly election.

The Congress, on Tuesday, released its second list of 26 candidates for the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls, fielding Farhad Suri against AAP’s Manish Sisodia from Jangpura while also giving tickets ex-AAP MLAs Asim Khan and Devender Sehrawat.

With this list, the Congress has declared a total of 47 candidates for the elections for the 70-member Delhi Assembly.

While Khan has been fielded from Matia Mahal, Sehrawat has been given a ticket from Bijwasan. Both the former AAP MLAs joined the Congress on Monday.

Suri will take on AAP's Sisodia from Jangpura.

The Congress also fielded Satish Luthra from Shakur Basti, Rajesh Lilothia from Seemapuri (SC), Haji Mohammad Ishraq Khan from Babarpur, Rajesh Chauhan from Deoli (SC), Pradeep Kumar Upmanyu from Delhi Cantt and Sumit Sharma from Laxmi Nagar.

The Congress also fielded Sushant Mishra from Rithala, Hanuman Chauhan from Mangol Puri (SC), Satender Sharma from Tri Nagar, Rajender Namdhari from Moti Nagar, J.P. Panwar from Madipur (SC), Dharmpal Chandela from Rajouri Garden, Mukesh Sharma from Uttam Nagar and Raghuvinder Shokeen from Matiala.

The list of 26 candidates nominated also includes Vineet Yadav from Rajinder Nagar, Jitender Kochar from Malviya Nagar, Pushpa Singh from Mehrauli, Harsh Chaudhary from Sangam Vihar, Amardeep from Trilokpuri (SC), Akshay Kumar from Kondli (SC), Gurcharan Singh Raju from Krishna Nagar, Pramod Kumar Jayant from Gokalpur (SC) and P K Mishra from Karawal Nagar.

The party had released its first list of 21 candidates earlier this month, fielding ex-MP Sandeep Dikshit from New Delhi, setting up a contest between him and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal.

The Congress had also fielded its Delhi chief Devender Yadav from Badli, ex-Delhi minister Haroon Yusuf from Ballimaran, ex-Delhi Congress chief Chaudhary Anil Kumar from Patparganj, national spokesperson Ragini Nayak from Wazirpur and Adarsh Shastri from Dwarka.

Tuesday's list came hours after the Congress' Central Election Committee (CEC) approved it.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi participated in the CEC meeting via video conferencing while Delhi in-charge Qazi Mohammad Nizamuddin and Delhi unit chief Devender Yadav, among other members of the CEC, were physically present at the AICC headquarters here.

After the Congress' CEC meeting, the party's Delhi in-charge Qazi Mohammad Nizamuddin told reporters, "Earlier the discussion happened in the screening committee meeting, now a detailed seat-wise discussion happened in the CEC meeting. There are many seats that have been cleared by the CEC. There are some pending seats."

When asked about the names of candidates on some prominent seats of Delhi, he said, "All 70 seats are important for us. We will try to fight strongly on all seats."

The Delhi Assembly elections are likely to be held in February next year.