Congress Fields Candidates for Haryana Elections, Maintains Alliance with AAP

New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday released its second list of nine candidates for the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections. Insiders claim that the Congress has left seven seats -- five seats for the AAP and two seats for the SP -- after the INDIA bloc partners reached a consensus on seat-sharing formula after several rounds of talks.

In its second list, the Congress has fielded former Union minister Birender Singh's son Brijendra Singh from Uchana Kalan. Former deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala is the JJP candidate in this seat.

Mohit Grover will contest from Gurugram, while Vardhan Yadav will be the Congress candidate from the Badshahpur Assembly. Kuldeep Sharma will contest from Ganaur, while former MLA Anand Dangi's son Balram Dangi is fielded from Meham.

In Tosham, the Congress fielded Anirudh Chaudhary against his cousin Shruti Choudhry, who is the daughter of BJP Rajya Sabha MP Kiran Choudhry. Shruti Choudhry will be contesting on the BJP's symbol.

The Congress announced its second list of candidates for the Haryana polls after holding a series of talks with the AAP. Leaders of the two parties seemed to have ironed out the differences over the past 48 hours, after their seat-sharing talks had hit a roadblock. As per sources from both parties, an official announcement on the alliance is likely on Monday.

According to sources, the SP will be contesting on Hathin and Sohna Assembly seats, while the AAP will field its candidates on Guhla, Pehowa, Pundri, Kalayat and Jind seats.

Possibilities are high that AAP Haryana chief Sushil Gupta will contest from Jind, while his deputy Anurag Dhanda will contest from Kalayat. In the Pehowa seat, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann's wife or his father-in-law will most likely be the AAP's candidate.

Earlier in the day, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha asserted that both the Congress and his party are trying to forge an alliance by keeping aside their individual aspirations.

While top leaders from both sides projected positivity, there are rumblings within the parties over the alliance talks. Despite the alliance, the local leaders in both parties are unhappy.