Delhi polls: Congress fields Kiran Walia against Kejriwal; all eyes on BJP now

New Delhi, Jan 17: Congress has finally decided to field former Delhi Minister Kiran Walia against Arvind Kejriwal in the prestigious New Delhi constituency where the AAP strongman had handed a crushing defeat to Shiela Dikshit in the Assembly polls in 2013.

The announcement came on Friday evening after Congress president Sonia Gandhi talked with the senior party leaders on phone. Sources said Walia was initially reluctant to contest from New Delhi but later agreed following the party's direction.

Walia was among four candidates named by the Congress for Feb 7 Delhi polls in its fourth and final list.

Walia, a three-time minister in Dikshit's cabinet, was defeated by AAP leader Somnath Bharti in Malviya Nagar. She had won the seat in 1999, 2003 and 2008.

Kejriwal had defeated Congress's face in Delhi, Shiela Dikshit, by a huge margin of over 25,000 votes in the New Delhi seat.

With this, the party has declared all its candidates for 70-member assembly. The first to do so was the AAP.

With the announcement of candidates by AAP and Congress all eyes are now fixed at the BJP which hasn't named any candidate so far.

OneIndia News