New Delhi, October 29 The Congress Monday deferred a decision on twelve candidates, as well as 2 ministers, of the forty three sitting legislators in the Delhi assembly, while selecting the names of thirty one for the Dec 4 assembly polls, party sources said.

The Congress determined to postpone a decision on the twelve MLAs as serious corruption charges are made against some of them; the decision on some of the other MLAs was held in abeyance on account of performance-related problems. party

Party’s Central Election Committee met under the leadership of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and discussed the candidature of the forty three sitting MLAs.

Around 1,600 candidates are in the fray for tickets, with the final call to be taken by the Central Election Committee.

The meeting was also attended by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, J.P. Agarwal (state unit chief) and poll in-charge Shakeel Ahmed.

The CEC has finalised the names of thirty one MLAs for party tickets, it’d take up the case of the remaining twelve soon.

Party sources said Congress vice chairman Rahul Gandhi, who forced the party and the central government to withdraw a controversial ordinance meant to save lots of tainted lawmakers, needs the Congress to field only candidates with a clean image.

While 5 MLAs have “serious” criminal charges against them, the name of 2 ministers was withheld due to their “non-performance.”

Criminal charges are the crux of all previous conferences concerning ticket distribution.