Giving in to the pressure from Jat strongman Sajjan Kumar, Congress today announced ticket for his brother Ramesh Kumar from the South Delhi constituency while DPCC president J P Aggarwal got the party nomination from North East Delhi seat.
The announcement came just a day before the last day of filing of nominations for the Lok Sabha elections in the national capital.
AICC spokesperson Tom Vadekon told PTI that "the party has decided to field Ramesh Kumar and Aggarwal from the two seats," a decision made after days of hectic political parleys.
Congress last week had withdrawn candidature of Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler from South and North East Delhi respectively following widespread protests on their alleged role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases.
Party sources said intense lobbying was done by Sajjan Kumar for his brother Ramesh pipping chances of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's candidate Assembly Speaker Yoganand Shastri.
The sources said the announcement of candidates in the two seats got delayed due to initial hesitation in fielding Ramesh Kumar as sections within the party opposed his nomination in place of his brother Sajjan Kumar. However, fearing that denial of ticket to Ramesh might result in party losing the seat altogether, Congress gave in, they said.
In case of Aggarwal, the sources said the party had already made up its mind to field him from North East seat. Ramesh Kumar, a former MLA from Shahbad Daulatpur seat in Northwest Delhi, was denied a party ticket for last year's assembly elections. Aggarwal, a two-time Lok Sabha MP, is currently a Rajya Sabha member.