The six-member screening committee of the Congress on Wednesday discussed the names of ticket aspirants for the 27 constituencies that the party had lost in the last Assembly elections.
It is expected to meet again on Thursday to finalise the names before taking them to the central election committee that is chaired by party president Sonia Gandhi.
Sources in the party said the names of candidates from all 27 constituencies were discussed threadbare at the meeting which began around 7.30 p.m. and went on for close to two-and-a-half hours.
“It was a marathon meeting which dealt with a lot of business. From some constituencies, like Trilokpuri, there were about 70 ticket-seekers. We would now be meeting again on Thursday to finalise the shortlisted candidates. Our effort would be to provide a panel of three names from each Assembly segment,” said a senior leader.
The screening committee comprising Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president J.P. Agarwal, panel head V. Narayanaswamy, Member of Parliament Bhubaneshwar Kalita, All-India Congress Committee general secretary in-charge of Delhi Shakeel Ahmed and AICC secretary in-charge Kuldip Nagra had on Monday submitted a list of names for 40 Assembly seats.
Mr. Agarwal had subsequently stated on Tuesday that during the central election committee meeting on Monday, the decision on 40 Assembly seats was almost finalised. He had also noted that some people were trying to spread misinformation that 12 seats had been withheld.
In fact, the names of only three sitting MLAs — Dayanand Chandela, Jaswant Ran and Mohammad Asif — had been withheld due to their alleged involvement in criminal cases.
The central election committee is scheduled to meet after Diwali.
