New Delhi:

The Congress 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’ top leadership 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.

Qazi Nizamuddin, the in-charge of the party’s affairs in Delhi, said, “In the last 10 years, Delhi has suffered a lot. The Centre and the Delhi government have been blaming each other for the bad conditions here.

“People have been suffering the consequences and they are now hell-bent on teaching these two governments a lesson,” he said after the CEC meeting.

Mr Yadav said, “All categories have been taken care of in our list. You will also get to see new and young faces. I am happy that our leadership has held discussions with everyone.” The Congress and AAP were earlier toying with the idea of holding a pre-poll alliance, but top leaders of both the parties, including Arvind Kejriwal and Yadav, have been openly saying that they will contest the Delhi polls alone and there will be no tie-up.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Bhopal:

The Congress on Saturday announced the candidates for the three remaining Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, fielding two former legislators.

With the announcement of its nominees from Khandwa, Gwalior and Morena, the Congress has now fielded candidates in 28 of the 29 Lok Sabha constituencies. One seat – Khajuraho – has been given to the Samajwadi Party (SP) under the INDIA bloc seat-sharing arrangement.

The Congress has fielded former MLA Praveen Pathak against BJP’s Bharat Singh Kushwaha from Gwalior. Pathak had been elected on a Congress ticket from Gwalior South assembly seat in 2018 but faced defeat in 2023.

Ex-legislator Satyapal Singh Sikarwar has been nominated from Morena and will face off with BJP’s Shivmangal Singh Tomar.

This Lok Sabha seat was won by BJP’s Narendra Singh Tomar in 2019, but he was elected as an MLA last year and later made the speaker of the Madhya Pradesh assembly.

Sikarwar was elected as MLA from the Sumawali assembly seat in 2013 on a BJP ticket. His father had also won the same assembly seat in 2003. Sikarwar was expelled from the saffron outfit in 2020 for alleged anti-party activities, following which he joined the Congress.

Congress has fielded Narendra Patel from Khandwa amid speculations that former union minister Arun Yadav could be the candidate from there.

Patel had contested from Badwah in the 2023 assembly polls and lost to BJP’s Sachin Birla by 5,499 votes. The BJP has fielded sitting MP Gyaneshwar Patil from Khandwa LS seat.

Gwalior and Morena will go to polls in the third phase on May 7, while voting in Khandwa will be held in the fourth phase on May 13. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)