Councillors Goel, Dutt get tickets from Cong for Delhi polls

Civic body leaders Mukesh Goel and Abhishek Dutt on Saturday figured in the first list of candidates released by Congress for the February 8 polls.

Goel, a senior party leader in the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, has got the ticket from Adarsh Nagar, while Dutt, South Delhi Municipal Corporation councillor from Andrews Ganj received it from Kasturba Nagar seat.

BJP on Friday had released its first list of 57 candidates, betting big on experience of municipal leaders, as it fielded four former mayors, among 20 civic leaders picked for the high-stakes contest.

The Congress on Saturday evening released its first list of 54 candidates for the Delhi Assembly elections, which included 10 women and a number of ministers of the Sheila Dikshit government.

Of the 54 nominees, 33 are making their debut in the Assembly elections. Four muslim candidates also figured in the list.

Congress is seeking to revive its fortunes in Delhi this time. It won just eight seats in 2013 and drew a blank in the 2015 Delhi Assembly polls.

All three municipal corporations are controlled by the BJP with the last civic polls in 2017 bring swept by the saffron party.

Winning 181 out of 270 wards where elections were held, the BJP had added muscle to its decade-long domination of the corporations, effortlessly bucking anti-incumbency by riding on the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The BJP's corporation-wise tally in 2017 was: SDMC - 70, NDMC - 64 and EDMC - 47 as against AAP's tally of 16, 21 and 11, respectively. The Congress had finished last with 12, 15 and 3 wards.