Cong names 54 candidates for Delhi Assembly polls

New Delhi, The Congress that released the list of 54 candidates for the February 8 Delhi Assembly polls, here on Saturday, has focused on fresh faces to take on the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has made its governance model and people-friendly policies as the poll plank.

The Congress has shunned the conservative path to the election and has benched the old-timers.

The prominent faces in the first list included Haroon Yusuf from Ballimaran, Adarsh Shastri from Dwarka, Rajesh Lilotia from Mangolpuri, Arvinder Singh Lovely from Gandhinagar, Alka Lamba from Chandni Chowk, Krishna Tirath from Patel Nagar, Mateen Ahmed from Seelampur, A.K. Walia from Krishna Nagar, Poonam Azad from Sangam Vihar and Abhishek Dutt from Kasturba Nagar.

However, the Congress is yet to announce candidate for the New Delhi seat to take on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

The Congress is expected to soon announce 12 more candidates, leaving four seats for the Rashtriya Janata Dal, alliance partner.

The party had already finalised most names, said Delhi Congress chief Subhash Chopra.

The Congress list has come a day after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released the first list of its candidates on Friday.