31 Delhi Congress MLAs to get tickets

The Congress Monday deferred a decision on 12 candidates, including two ministers, of the 43 sitting legislators in the Delhi assembly, while deciding on the names of 31 for the Dec 4 assembly polls, party sources said.

The Congress decided to postpone a decision on the 12 MLAs as serious corruption charges have been made against some of them; the decision on some of the other MLAs was held in abeyance on account of performance-related issues.

The Central Election Committee of the party met under the leadership of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and discussed the candidature of the 43 sitting MLAs.

Around 1,600 applicants are in the fray for tickets, with the final call to be taken by the Central Election Committee.

The meeting was also attended by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, state unit chief J.P. Agarwal and poll in-charge Shakeel Ahmed.

Sources in the party said while the CEC has finalised the names of 31 MLAs for party tickets, it would take up the case of the remaining 12 soon.

Party sources said Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, who forced the party and the central government to withdraw a controversial ordinance meant to save tainted lawmakers, wants the Congress to field only candidates with a clean image.

The MLAs who won by a slender margin of 1,000 voters, are also among the 12 names.

While five MLAs have "serious" criminal charges against them, the name of two ministers was withheld because of their "non-performance."

Criminal charges have been the crux of all previous meetings pertaining to ticket distribution.