New Delhi

Congress firms up names for pending Delhi Assembly seats

NEW DELHI: Former Delhi Mayor Jaishree Panwar is emerging as the front-runner to take on the BJP’s Chief Ministerial candidate, Prof. Vijay Kumar Malhotra, for the Greater Kailash seat in the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections.

Following two rounds of hectic deliberations on Saturday evening, the Central Election Committee of the Congress is understood to have firmed up the names of candidates for some of the pending 22 seats in the 70-member Assembly.

While the Congress has still not officially announced the names of the candidates for these seats, it is learnt that Delhi Health Minister Yoganand Shastri, who had lost the race for the Malviya Nagar ticket to another MLA, Kiran Walia, has been persuaded now to fight from Narela. A Jat leader, Dr. Shastri stands a fair chance from this rural constituency.

Likewise, it is reliably learnt that from Jangpura the sitting MLA, Tarvinder Singh Marwah, has emerged as the first choice.

Minto Road MLA Tajdar Babar, who was also seeking nomination, was apparently offered Matia Mahal, but she is learnt to have expressed her reluctance.

From Sadar Bazar, where the tussle for the ticket was once again between two MLAs, Rajesh Jain and Shadi Ram, Mr. Jain is having the upper hand.

As for the sitting Congress MLAs whose names have still not been decided, there appears to be a mixed bag in store. While three-time MLA Bheesham Sharma is now again in the reckoning for the Ghonda seat, party chief whip Ramakant Goswami is struggling to get the nod from Rajendra Nagar where Brahm Yadav has nosed ahead.

Likewise in Burari, Deepak Tyagi has taken the lead over MLA Jile Singh Chauhan despite the area being entirely carved out of the latter’s old constituency.

In several constituencies there is still an even tie among the key aspirants.

In Wazirpur, popular leader Hari Shankar Gupta faces an uphill battle against Chhattar Singh, while in the Jat-dominated Mundka the struggle now is between local community leader Naresh Kumar and Brahmin leader P. C. Kaushik. Interestingly, while the candidature of several sitting DPCC office-bearers like Suresh Malik from Hari Nagar and Mahmood Zia from Matia Mahal is under a cloud, many close associates of former DPCC president Ram Babu Sharma -- who has himself got the ticket from his Rohtas Nagar constituency -- have either not made it to the final panel of names or are finding the candidature to be a tough ask.

As such, Jai Kishen Sharma is finding the going tough in Najafgarh where he is pitted against former MLA Kanwal Singh Yadav.

The CEC will again meet on Sunday to finalise the names. The selection process has now entered a critical phase and there is also a race against time as the last date for filing nomination approaches.

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