Congress releases first list of 21 candidates for Delhi Assembly polls, pits Sandeep Dixit against Kejriwal

India’s Congress party on Thursday (Dec 12) released its first list of 21 candidates for the upcoming assembly polls in the national capital Delhi.

Sandeep Dikshit, son of former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit and former Lok Sabha MP, has been named to contest from the New Delhi constituency that is represented by AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal.

The Congress president of the city Devender Yadav has ben fielded from the Badli seat, while the party’s spokesperson Ragini Nayak has been named from the Wazirpur seat. Abhishek Dutt has been filed from Kasturba Nagar.

The list was released in the evening on Thursday just after the party’s top leadership approved the names.

Congress releases first list of 21 candidates for Delhi elections.

Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav to contest from Badli, Ragini Nayak from Wazirpur, Sandeep Dikshit from New Delhi, Abhishek Dutt from Kasturba Nagar. pic.twitter.com/ceb8QcGCkK

— ANI (@ANI) December 12, 2024

The list comes after AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said in October that his party would contest the polls alone, ruling out an alliance with Congress or under INDIA alliance.

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“In Delhi, AAP will contest alone. We are capable of fighting the overconfident Congress and arrogant BJP alone,” AAP spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said.

The party further blamed “overconfident” Congress for not taking alliance partners seriously in Haryana and ultimately facing a rout due to its overconfidence.

“The Congress has had zero seats in the Delhi assembly for the past 10 years, yet AAP gave Congress three seats in the Lok Sabha polls; still they did not feel necessary to take allies along in Haryana,” Kakkar said.

Kakkar claimed that Congress thwarted all efforts by the INDIA bloc to forge an alliance in Haryana and “didn’t feel it necessary to take its ally along with them.” The AAP and Congress failed to stitch up a pre-poll alliance in Haryana due to differences over seat sharing.

While the AAP lost all the seats it contested in Haryana, the Congress fell well short of the majority mark, as the ruling BJP returned to power in the state for a third consecutive time.

The AAP and the Congress had fought Lok Sabha elections together in Haryana.

In the election held earlier in the year, the AAP lost the sole seat it contested and the Congress won five out of 10 seats.

Kakkar attributed the AAP’s winning one seat in the Jammu and Kashmir to the party’s development-driven politics.

Aong other candidates, Congress has fielded Aruna Kumari from Narela, Mangesh Tyagi from Burari, Shivank Singhal from Adarsh Nagar, Jai Kishan from Sultanpur Majra, Rohit Chaudhary from Nangloi Jat, Praveen Jain from Shalimarbagh, Anil Bhardwaj from Sadar Bazar and Mudit Agarwal from Chandni Chowk. Former Delhi Minister Haroon Yusuf has been fielded from Ballimaran.

(With inputs from agencies)