NEW DELHI: Six women and four Muslims figure in the first list of 48 Congress candidates for Delhi Assembly elections announced on Wednesday in which Health Minister Yoganand Shastri could not find a place.
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit will lead the women for the Assembly elections scheduled on November 29, which will see whether Congress can win a record three consecutive victories in the national capital.
The Grand Old Party has fielded six women candidates in the first list while Opposition BJP has only two candidates from the fairer sex in its first list of 53 candidates. Last time the Congress had given tickets to nine women out of whom seven won.
Out of the six women candidates, Dikshit, Kiran Walia, Barkha Singh and Anjali Rai are sitting MLAs while the party has given tickets to freshers Deepika Khullar and Anjana Pracha.
Walia, who is considered close to Dikshit, outwitted Shastri in the race for nomination from the Malviya Nagar seat while Singh has been given the R K Puram seat for the second time. Rai will fight from Moti Nagar after her erstwhile Paharganj constituency got deleted post delimitation.
Khullar, who won the MCD elections last year as an independent candidate after Congress denied a ticket, has been chosen to fight against BJP state chief Harsh Vardhan in Krishna Nagar constituency. Pracha will fight from Trilokpuri.
The four Muslim candidates are Transport Minister Harun Yusuf (Ballimaran), Pervez Hashmi (Okhla), Mateen Ahmed (Seelampur) and Hasan Ahmed (Mustafabad).
