Congress likley to announce candidates for seven seats today

NEW DELHI: The Congress is expected to announce its candidates for the seven seats in Delhi on Sunday, putting to end speculation of an alliance with Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the national capital for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

Different names from different seats were being discussed in the party, said sources. Party president Rahul Gandhi to finalise the list thereafter the party will announce.

Sources said that one list is like Ajay Maken from New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, while Sheila Diskhit could be nominated from Chandni Chowk. Wrestler Sushil Kumar is likely to contest from West Delhi, Ramesh Kumar from South Delhi, JP Agarwal from North East Delhi and Rajkumar Chauhan from North West Delhi, IANS quoted the Congress leader as saying.

There is also another possibility that Ajay Maken, is likely to be given ticket from New Delhi. Senior party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal is likely to be fielded from Chandi Chowk, which he represented twice earlier. The other former parliamentarians expected to contest are Mahabal Mishra, JP Agrawal, Ramesh Sharma and Rajkumar Chauhan.

Congress leader PC Chacko said that the AAP was adamant that along with Delhi, the two parties should fight together in Haryana and Punjab, a demand that was not acceptable to his party.

Meanwhile, on Saturday AAP said that an alliance just in Delhi is not possible after the Congress refused to have a tie-up anywhere else with AAP. The AAP accused the Congress of playing "spoilsport" in alliance talks and "being unfair" by not giving them any seat in Punjab and asking for too many seats in Delhi.