As part of its alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party, the Congress announced its Lok Sabha candidates on Sunday for the three Delhi seats it is running for Kanhaiya Kumar from North East Delhi, JP Agarwal from Chandni Chowk, and Udit Raj from North West Delhi.
Kumar’s past
Kumar left the Communist Party of India (CPI) in September 2021 to join the Congress. He ran in the most recent Lok Sabha elections from Begusarai, Bihar, but was defeated by Giriraj Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). After failing to get Begusarai from its supporters in India, the party fielded Kumar from Northeast Delhi this time.
Congress’s plans with Kumar
Kumar is the leader of the party’s NSUI student branch and is running against Manoj Tiwari, the sitting Member of Parliament for the BJP, in a constituency that has a sizable Bihar and Uttar Pradesh support base.
“After Delhi Congress head Arvinder Singh Lovely informed the central election committee (CEC) on 5 April that he is not inclined to compete in the Lok Sabha polls, Kumar’s candidature became nearly probable. A senior Congress leader who asked to remain anonymous indicated that Kumar has the support of at least two influential figures, including communications chief Jairam Ramesh. Former MP Sandeep Dikshit was another possibility.
Expectations with Agarwal
The party has nominated former lawmaker Agarwal to challenge BJP candidate Praveen Khandelwal for the Chandni Chowk seat. The party nominated Raj, a former BJP member, as the North West Delhi candidate in the third constituency that it controls. Yogendra Chandolia has been put forth by the BJP.
Raj, a former Indian Revenue Service official who entered politics, won a BJP ticket in North West Delhi in 2014. Having joined the party in 2019, he is among the most outspoken leaders of the Congress in the nation’s capital.
The leader of the women’s wing, Alka Lamba, and Agarwal were the two candidates that the Congress was considering for Chandni Chowk. A second leader stated, “The party preferred Agarwal for his clout in Chandni Chowk and also to accommodate the former MP, even though Lamba had been a former Delhi MLA.”
Agarwal was an MP for North East Delhi from 2009 to 2014 and earlier represented Chandni Chowk in the Lok Sabha. He was also a Delhi MP in the Rajya Sabha before.
Since the CEC meeting failed to produce a consensus, the poll panel gave Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge the authority to select the candidates.
Other candidates
Together with the candidate for the UP seat in Allahabad, the party also unveiled its initial list of six candidates from Punjab.
Former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi from Jalandhar, current MPs Gurjeet Singh Aujla from Amritsar and Amar Singh from Fatehgarh Sahib, and former Akali Dal MLA Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu from Bhatinda, who served four terms, are the candidates fielded by the Congress. Following the resignation of incumbent MP Preneet Kaur, who is married to senior Congress leader Captain Amarinder Singh, from the Congress, former AAP MP Dharamvir Gandhi from Patiala and Punjab MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira were selected as the candidates.
The Congress chose to field Ujjwal Rewati Raman Singh, an Allahabad (Prayagraj) native and veteran of the Samajwadi Party, in Uttar Pradesh. There are now just two seats available.
ats in Uttar Pradesh, Amethi, and Raeb Bareli, from which the Congress candidates are still to be announced.
The INDIA bloc has now officially announced all seven of its candidates for Delhi with this Sunday’s announcement. The Aam Aadmi Party announced on February 27 that Sahi Ram Pehelwan from South Delhi, Somnath Bharti from New Delhi, Mahabal Mishra from West Delhi, and Kuldeep Kumar from East Delhi will be the candidates.