Delhi Assembly Elections: Ajay Maken to be face of Congress in National Capital

New Delhi: Former Union Minister and Congress general secretary Ajay Maken is likely to be named Chairman of the party’s campaign committee and will contest Delhi assembly election as a meeting of Congress Election Committee chaired by Sonia Gandhi on Monday finalized candidates for 39 more seats.

Sources said Maken would be the face of the party for Delhi Assembly polls 2015 and is among the three former MPs who will be fielded by the party in the state polls.

The other two are former Union Minister Krishna Tirath and former MP Mahabal Mishra.

With the CEC zeroing in on 39 candidates on Monday, nominees for 63 assembly segments stand decided by the party for the 70-member Delhi Assembly.

A senior party functionary, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said some more discussion is required on choice of candidates for the remaining seven seats.

The second list of 39 candidates could be out soon.

Breaking with the past practice, Congress has this time taken a decision to announce candidates early. The party had planned to declare its candidates for all 70 seats by the time election dates are announced.

The Election Commission on Monday announced 7 February as polling date.

The Congress had on January 1 released its first list of 24 candidates repeating all its eight MLAs and 12 others who were runner-ups in the 2013 Assembly election in which the party had received a drubbing securing just 8 seats.

Usually, the Congress list comes out during the nomination process. The early release of candidates’ name comes at a time when the party is desperately trying to regain the lost ground in Delhi.

The last election had brought an end to the 15-year-long rule of the party led by Sheila Dikshit who herself was defeated by AAP Chief Arvind Kejriwal in her home constituency New Delhi. Dikshit is not contesting elections this time.

While the party had on November 24 decided its Pradesh Election Committee, Manifesto Committee, Publicity Committee and Disciplinary Committee for the state, a decision on the all-important Campaign Committee for the state was kept pending.

The party has, so far, dismissed speculation that PCC chief Aravinder Singh Lovely, whose candidature was declared in the first list, won’t contest elections this time.

The former MPs, who are unlikely to contest in the Assembly polls are Dikshit’s son Sandip Dikshit, former Union Minister Kapil Sibal, former PCC chief Jaiprakash Agrawal and former MP Ramesh Kumar.

Sheila Dikshit, about whom the party said that she will be a “key campaigner”, was accommodated only as a member in the Pradesh Election Committee (PEC) headed by Lovely.

PTI