SCOOP: Rift in Delhi Congress ahead of announcement of final list of candidates

In a massive scoop on Friday, sources informed that senior Congress leaders do not want to contest the upcoming Delhi polls, but wants their family members to contest. Sources said that due to this a major rift has been going on between the senior leaders of the Delhi Congress and party chief Sonia Gandhi. This comes as the grand old party is about to announce the list of candidates on Friday. Earlier, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced its final list of candidates, but the BJP has not yet finalised the list. 

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Congress' poll promise

The Delhi Congress on Thursday promised 30 paise cashback for each litre of water saved by Delhi resident. Additionally, it has promised that 20,000 litres of water a month will be free, if the party is voted to power in the February 8 assembly elections. Claiming that the cashback plan will help the city save 25-30 per cent of drinking water, Delhi Congress president Subhash Chopra alleged that the AAP government's free water scheme "benefited water tanker mafia". "The AAP government gave 20,000 litres of water per month free without any calculations. It never paid attention to water conservation," he claimed. Water from abandoned, empty houses was going to "tanker mafias", the Congress' state unit president claimed.

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Delhi Assembly Elections

The Election Commission announced that Delhi will go to polls in a single-phase on February 8 and the counting of votes will take place on February 11. The last day of filing nominations for the candidates will be on January 21 and the last day to withdraw nominations will be for January 24. 

The BJP and Congress are yet to name their Chief Ministerial faces. For the BJP, names such as Manoj Tiwari, Hardeep Puri and Harsh Vardhan have been touted, though Amit Shah has stated in the absence of a formal name that the BJP would contest under PM Modi's leadership. The ruling AAP is contesting the election with Kejriwal leading them. 

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In what is the major highlight of the Delhi elections scheduled next year is Prashant Kishor's team working with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. While poll strategist Prashant Kishor and his team I-PAC is strategizing his re-election for the next term with a target of "Abki baar 67 paar"(This time we will cross 67), BJP, which has not held the Delhi Assembly since 1998, has strongly hinted towards Manoj Tiwari being its CM candidate.

Kejriwal's AAP had bagged 67 out of the 70 seats of the Delhi Assembly in the last elections. In the past six months, he has rolled out many schemes and has claimed that his party is the only party to fulfill all manifesto promises. BJP has dismissed his claims and called his schemes a freebie before elections. 

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