Congress releases list of 21 candidates for Delhi polls

The Congress on Thursday released its first list of 21 candidates for the Delhi Assembly polls slated to be held early next year, fielding city unit chief Devender Yadav from Badli and ex-MP Sandeep Dikshit from New Delhi.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is the sitting MLA from New Delhi.

The Congress also fielded 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.

Among the other candidates, Ali Mahndi will fight from Mustafabad, Abdul Rehman from Seelampur, Rohit Chaudhry from Nangloi Jat and Praveen Jain from Shalimar Bagh.

The list was released soon after the Congress's top leadership on Thursday cleared the names of the 21 candidates for the assembly elections.

At a meeting of the party's central election committee chaired by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, top leaders from Delhi and CEC members discussed the names of nominees and gave nod to 21 candidates.

Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, CEC members Ambika Soni, Salman Khurshid, T S Singh Deo and Mushusudan Mistry were among those present at the meeting. Delhi Congress chief Devendra Yadav was also present during the deliberations.