Sheila Dikshit may contest Lok Sabha polls from East Delhi: Reports

New Delhi, Apr 16: Senior Congress leader and Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit is expected contest the upcoming Lok Sabha election from East Delhi constituency, say reports.

The Congress has zeroed in on seven names for all constituencies. Sheila Dikshit, who heads the party's Delhi unit, is likely to contest from East Delhi, reports NDTV quoting sources. Her son Sandeep Dikshit will not contest the polls this time.

However, there is room for change if AAP happens to fall in line, the report added.

Dikshit has refused to give any clarity whether or not she would consider the offer. "Once the candidates are finalised it will be announced. Everyone will know who all are contesting," she said.

Before entering Delhi politics, the former chief minister represented the Kannauj parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh between 1984 and 1989. In the 1998 Lok Sabha elections, Dikshit was defeated by BJP's Lal Bihari Tiwari from East Delhi. In the same year, she went on to become Delhi chief minister, serving for 15 years till 2013.

According to the reports, the party is yet to finalise its candidates for East Delhi, West Delhi and South Delhi constituencies. They said the party is likely to field former Union minister Kapil Sibal from Chandni Chowk, former Delhi minister Rajkumar Chouhan from North West seat, former state unit chief Ajay Maken from New Delhi and former MP J P Agarwal from North East Delhi constituency.

The Congress on Friday said its talks with the AAP for an alliance has failed as the Arvind Kejriwal-led party took an "impractical stand" of a tie-up in four states, but indicated that possibilities for an electoral understanding between the two were still alive for Delhi.

Chacko announced that the party will go alone, but maintained that it is still willing to have an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) provided the tie-up is restricted only to the national capital.

The AAP, however, said the tie-up can only be done on 33 Lok Sabha seats across four states and one Union Territory.

Uncertainty over alliance between the AAP and the Congress has been continuing for weeks now with the former demanding an alliance on 33 seats of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Goa and Chandigarh.