When the Congress cleared its second list for the upcoming assembly elections late on Thursday night, 13 new faces found place in the list of 15 candidates.
All these 13 candidates are youths. The buzz is that the decision to nominate youths in the second list was taken at the behest of Congress national vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
Former Delhi University Students Union’s (DUSU) president Ragini Nayak has been pitted against former BJP minister and four-times city legislator Prof. Jagdish Mukhi from Janakpuri constituency. Similarly, former DUSU president and sitting councillor Amrita Dhawan has been given a ticket from Tilak Nagar. Earlier, Daler Mehndi was expected to be fielded from Tilak Nagar.
Harnam Singh, who is currently chairman of Delhi Safai Karamchari Commission has been given a ticket from Trilokpuri by the Congress.
The new faces in the second list are Inderjit Singh from Rithala, KK Wadhwa from Rohini, Harsharan Singh Balli from Hari Nagar. Tasveer Singh Solanki from Dwarka, Bijender Dutt Sharma from Najafgarh, Vinay Sharma from Palam, Jagparvesh Kumar from Sangam Vihar, sitting Congress councillor Virender Kasana from Greater Kailash, Om Prakash Bidhuri from Tughlakabad.
On 11 November, the Congress had cleared 56 names, of which 42 were sitting MLAs. Chief minister Sheila Dikshit was strongly in favour of giving party tickets to all sitting MLAs.