Cong to bank on old faces? 18 of 90 candidates ‘final’

Gurgaon: Amid intense competition among party members, Congress is believed to have finalised its candidates for 18 of 90 seats for the assembly elections, whose date was changed from Oct 1 to 5 by the Election Commission on Saturday.
Sources in the party said of these 18 seats, Congress has decided to repose its faith in nine sitting MLAs. In most of the other seats too, the party might rely on old faces.An official announcement of the names is expected in 2-3 days.
Former chief minister Bhupender Singh Hooda is set to contest from Garhi-Sampla-Kiloi seat in Rohtak, the sources said.
Apart from Hooda, the other incumbent MLAs likely to get party tickets again are BB Batra from Rohtak, Geeta Bhukkal from Jhajjar, Raghuvir Kadian from Beri, Chiranjeev Rao from Rewari, Aftab Ahmed from Nuh, Mohammad Ilyas from Punhana, Rao Dan Singh from Mahendragarh and Induraj Bhalu from Baroda.
According to sources, the candidature of MLAs Sheli Chaudhary from Narayangarh in Ambala and Neeraj Sharma from Faridabad NIT are almost final. Additionally, Kuldeep Vats from Badli, a close associate of Hooda, is expected to secure a ticket.
Congress, sources said, is also set to renominate four candidates who unsuccessfully contested the 2019 assembly elections. They are Ashok Arora from Thanesar, Karan Singh Dalal of Palwal, Lakhan Singla from Faridabad, and Chaudhary Vijay Pratap Singh, Badkhal.
Ashok Arora narrowly lost to BJP's Subhash Sudha in 2019 — only by 819 votes. Vijay Pratap Singh, the son of former minister Mahendra Pratap Singh, received 2,545 votes less than BJP's Seema Trikha.
In Meham constituency of Rohtak, the party may replace 2019 candidate Anand Singh Dangi with his son, Balram Dangi, who expressed desire to contest the elections.
It was in July that Congress invited applications from members interested in contesting the assembly polls. Over the next one month, the party received 2,556 applications for 90 seats, with some constituencies witnessing as many as 40 aspirants, making it quite difficult for the high command to shortlisting candidates.
Senor Congress functionaries also ruled out two lists of 16 and 20 candidates that were circulated earlier.