Delhi Assembly Elections 2025: Ajit Pawar’s NCP Releases First List of 11 Candidates, Opts For Solo Contest

The elections to the 70-member Delhi Assembly are slated to be held in February 2025. The ruling AAP has announced all 70 candidates while Congress has announced 47 names.

Delhi Assembly Elections 2025: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Saturday released its first list of 11 candidates for the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls slated to be held in February next year.

While the NCP contested the Maharashtra elections in an alliance with the NDA, it decided to field separate candidates on 11 seats in the upcoming Delhi polls. So far, the party has named candidates from Burari, Mangolpuri, Badli, Chhatarpur, Seema Puri, Okhla, Gokul Puri, Sangam Vihar, Laxmi Nagar, Chandni Chowk, and Balli Maran. 

NCP has fielded Mulayam Singh from Badli against Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav, Khalid Ur Rehman from Chandni Chowk, Ratan Tyagi from Burari, Mohammad Harun from Balli Maran, and Narender Tanwar from Chhatarpur. 

It has also fielded Imran Saifi from Okhla, Khem Chand from Mangolpuri, Namaha from Laxmi Nagar, Rajesh Lohiya from Seemapuri, Jagdish Bhagat from Gokulpuri, and Qamar Ahmad from Sangam Vihar.

NCP leader Praful Patel had earlier said that the party has previously contested elections in Delhi and will be doing it this time as well. He had also revealed that the Pawar camp held discussions with the BJP to contest elections in an alliance. But, with the NCP announcing its list, it is clear that the party has decided to contest the Delhi polls independently. 

While the ruling Aam Aadmi Party has named candidates for all 70 seats, the Congress has named 47 so far in the two lists announced by it. It is yet to announce the rest of the candidates.

Meanwhile, it is being said that Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) might field Shahrukh Pathan, one of the key accused in the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, as a candidate in the Delhi elections. He was arrested in March 2020 and is currently lodged in the Tihar jail. However, the AIMIM leader has not finalised anything and there has been no official announcement regarding the same.

Another 2020 Delhi riots accused, Tahir Hussain, who joined AIMIM, has been fielded by the party from Mustafabad seat for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections. Hussain was a former AAP councillor. He is also currently in the Tihar jail.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, however, is yet to announce its candidates list.