The alliance talks between Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi for the Lok Sabha election seems have yielded no fruitful results. According to media reports, the Congress’ Delhi unit Screening Committee has shortlisted candidates for all the seven parliamentary seats in the national capital and an announcement will be done soon.
A PTI report said that the leaders of the committee met on Saturday night to shortlist candidates for seven parliamentary seats. The meeting of the Congress leaders took place amid speculation over its alliance with Aam Aadmi Party of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The last night meeting took place at former Congress CM and party’s state unit chief Sheila Dikshit’s residence. The committee is believed to have shortlisted the names from around 80 applications received from party probables for the seven seats last month.
A senior party leader told PTI that the new list will be sent to the party high-command for final selection of the candidates.
The meeting took place even as a final decision on Congress’ alliance with the AAP is pending with the party president Rahul Gandhi. Last week, Rahul had summoned Delhi Congress leaders for an emergency meeting at his residence. He had sought their views with regard to the decision to join the ranks with AAP in the national capital to take on the BJP.
Besides Dikshit, four former Delhi Congress presidents — Ajay Maken, Subhash Chopra, Tajdar Babar and Arvinder Singh Lovely were also present there. While Dikhshit opposed the move to contest elections in agreement with AAP, the remaining four favoured an alliance with the AAP. Three Delhi Congress working presidents Devender Yadav, Rajesh Lilothia and Haroon Yusuf also maintained their stand against the alliance.
Kejrwal’s party has been seeking an alliance with the Congress in Delhi but difference within the grand old party delayed the possible tie-up, forcing AAP to announce its seven candidates.