Delhi polls: More sitting Congress legislators cleared to contest

After reaching a consensus on the names of 22 sitting Delhi legislators for the party ticket, the Congress screening committee is learnt to have cleared more names of more lawmakers to contest Dec 4 assembly elections.

"We are fine with some more names of sitting MLAs (legislators). We also discussed the names of those who have serious criminal charges against them," said a party source but declined to divulge the number of the cleared names.

Party sources also said consensus on other names eluded the meeting since the party does not give a ticket to those who face criminal charges.

On Saturday, the screening committee had cleared the names of 22 lawmakers who had applied for party tickets.

A list of 42 sitting Congress legislators was forwarded by the 27-member Delhi election committee after it failed to unanimously decide on ticket distribution.

In an earlier screening committee meeting, it was decided that aspirants with serious criminal charges, those who have lost twice from their constituencies or were defeated by more than 10,000 votes would not get the ticket.

Around 1,600 applicants are in the fray for ticket, with the final call to be taken by the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi-headed Central Election Committee.