Ranks restive over Congress delay in naming candidates

The unusual delay by the Congress party in naming its candidates for the seven Lok Sabha seats of Delhi has given a head start to the rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Having already named six candidates, the BJP has already hit the campaign trail much to chagrin of the Congress workers.

Although all Delhi seats are scheduled to go to polls on May 10, the last of the five-phased general elections, the delay in releasing the Congress list has given a one sided look in the city with the six BJP candidates almost finishing the first round of their campaigning.

The process of filing nomination papers in Delhi is scheduled to start on April 16 with April 23 being fixed the last date for it.

The reluctance of several city-based senior leaders to contest parliamentary polls has made the task of zeroing down on winnable candidates difficult for the party's central leadership.

The screening panel for Delhi headed by Shivraj Patil, deputy leader of the Congress
parliamentary party in the dissolved Lok Sabha, met here on Friday to start the process of short listing probable candidates.

Senior central leaders Ahmed Patel, Mukul Wasnik, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and the state unit chief Chaudhary Prem Singh were among others who attended the meeting.

They, however, failed to break the logjam due to paucity of winnable candidates. If Dikshit was busy pushing the candidature of her son Sandeep Dikshit for the East Delhi seat, the most logical choice for this seat, her Finance Minister Dr. A.K. Walia, is reluctant despite his name figuring in the list of short-listed candidates. The third contender for the East Delhi seat is national secretary Anil Shastri.

The BJP has already announced Lal Bihar Tiwari, who won the seat in the last two polls as its candidate. The Congress party has not won the East Delhi seat after 1984.

If Outer Delhi seat, from where Federal Labour Minister Sahib Singh is the BJP candidate, is proving to be the biggest headache for the Congress party, there is near unanimity on the Delhi Sadar seat over candidature of former federal minister Jagdish Tytler.

Among the names short-listed include party spokesperson and noted lawyer Kapil Sibal, party chief Sonia Gandhi's close confidant Capt. Dalbir Singh and industrialist Ajit Chaddha for the South Delhi seat.

Former federal minister Dr. Karan Singh who unsuccessfully contested against Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee from Lucknow in the last polls, Supreme Court lawyer and Rajya Sabha member R.K. Anand and former state unit chief Tajdar Babbar figure in the list for New Delhi seat.

Former Delhi minister and legislator Krishna Tirath is the frontrunner to contest the Karol Bagh seat reserved for lower castes since Meira Kumar, who had contested the seat in 1999, has said she will prefer to contest from her home state Bihar.

The choice for the Chandni Chowk seat is now between J.P. Agarwal and Prem Agarwal besides Delhi Transport Minister Haroon Yusuf, who like Walia is reluctant to contest for the Lok Sabha. Incidentally, BJP is yet to name its candidate for this seat.

"We discussed several names but have not taken any final decision," the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Chau-dhary Prem Singh said.