Congress Announces First List Of 54 Candidates For Delhi Elections; Alka Lamba Fielded From Chandni Chowk

Former AAP leader Alka Lamba, who switched over to the Congress, has been fielded from Chandni Chowk constituency, while election campaign committee chairman Kirti Azad's wife Poonam Azad will contest from Sangam Vihar.

Former Delhi minister Ashok Kumar Walia will contest from Krishna Nagar constituency. (File Photo/ Getty)

New Delhi: Congress on Saturday announced its first list of 54 candidates for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections on February 8. Congress was last among Delhi's mainstream parties including Aam Aadmi Party and Bharatiya Janata Party, to release the list of candidates. The party-led by Sonia Gandhi, has fielded former Union minister Krishna Tirath from Patel Nagar and former Delhi minister Arvinder Lovely from Gandhi Nagar. Former AAP leader Alka Lamba, who switched over to the Congress, has been fielded from Chandni Chowk constituency, while election campaign committee chairman Kirti Azad's wife Poonam Azad will contest from Sangam Vihar.

#Congress releases list of candidates for 54 out of 70 seats for upcoming #DelhiElections2020 .

WATCH LIVE: https://t.co/PQbT45sMtv pic.twitter.com/i6jewkOEGJ — ABP News (@ABPNews) January 18, 2020

Former Delhi minister Ashok Kumar Walia will contest from Krishna Nagar constituency, Haroon Yusuf from Ballimaran, Mateen Ahamad from Seelampur, the party announced. The Congress has not decided its candidate against Delhi Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal from the New Delhi seat. The party has fielded Lakshman Rawat against Deputy CM Manish Sisodia from Patparganj. BJP on Friday evening released list of 57 candidates out of 70 for the much-crucial Delhi elections. Out of the 57 candidates fielded by the saffron party,  11 are from the Scheduled Caste (SC) community and four are women. Rebel Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA and now BJP leader Kapil Mishra, who, Tiwari said, will contest the Delhi polls from Model Town seat. BJP's national Secretary R.P. Singh is being fielded from Rajinder Nagar, while Shikha Rai is the candidate from the upscale Greater Kailash. From Tughlaqabad, the candidate is Vikram Bidhuri, a relative of BJP's South Delhi MP Ramesh Bidhuri. Earlier this week, ruling AAP had released its list of candidates for all 70 seats for the Delhi polls. Kejriwal will contest from the New Delhi Assembly seat while his deputy Manish Sisodia from the Patparganj Assembly seat. Atishi Marlena is will contest the Assembly polls from Kalkaji seat whereas as Raghav Chadha will fight from Rajinder Nagar seat. Somnath Bharti will contest from Malviya Nagar seat and Amanatullah Khan will contend from Okhla seat. The last date to file nomination is January 21, the scrutiny will happen on January 22 while the last date of withdrawal of candidature will be January 24. The counting of votes will be taken up on February 11.