Delhi Congress set to start campaign for Assembly elections

New Delhi: The Congress in Delhi is all set to start its campaign in the city with Assembly elections drawing near. According to party sources, Congress has already received around 220 names of prospective candidates for the Assembly elections from its block and district level leaders.

Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, Delhi Congress spokesperson Jitendra Kochar said, “Nine district presidents have already submitted their recommendation. Many block leaders were out of Delhi, so we have received their recommendations till Wednesday. From Thursday onwards, we will prepare the list of all recommended names and the committee concerned will work under the guidance of the pradesh adhaksh.” Not willing to disclose any recommended names so far, he said, “It is an internal procedure of the party. Thus, the disclosure of recommended names is not possible now. We won’t even disclose the names of district or block leaders. But certainly, there will be detailed information on how many recommendations we received for each prospective candidates.” Speaking about the party’s ongoing preparations for the Assembly polls, he added, “We will start our campaign in full swing soon.”

Congress president Rahul Gandhi met Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee leaders, including Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit, on Friday. Soon after the meeting, Diksit dismissed all 280 block committees. A press release said that the committee probing the reasons for the Congress’ poor show in the Lok Sabha polls, took this decision on the basis of the committee’s report. A Congress source said other organisational changes may also take place.

On the condition of anonymity, a Congress leader told this newspaper: “Many issues need to be fixed at the earliest as the party is going for polls next year.’’ However, the leader rejected any speculation regarding change in leadership in Delhi. The party had its morale boosted as it came second in five Lok Sabha constituencies of the national capital in the recent Lok Sabha polls. “AAP is now exposed. So our party will obviously perform better in the Assembly polls. But like earlier, this time also, there is delay in announcing the names of candidates. This might harm the party again as others have already started their campaign. By this time, we should have been on roads. But that is not happening right now,’’ a Congress worker said on the condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, Congress has lashed out at AAP for irregularities in Delhi Waqf Board appointments and accused the board’s chairperson and AAP MLA, Amanatullah Khan, of corruption and nepotism. Congress has accused the Delhi Waqf Board of flouting all norms in its 33 recruitments and demanded a CBI probe.