AAP can be Trusted, but it is not Tested: Ajay Maken (Lead)

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) Congress leader Ajay Maken, who was Tuesday named the party campaign committee chief for the Delhi assembly elections, said his party was the only "trusted and tested" option against the AAP, which was "trusted" but not "tested".

"We (Congress) are trusted and tested. We have Kiran Walia, Arvind Singh Lovely, Yoganand Shastri and other trusted faces we want to present to the people (of Delhi)," Maken told the media at a briefing here.

"AAP can be trusted but (it is) not tested," he added.

Earlier, in the same briefing, Congress' Delhi in charge P.C.Chacko announced party chief Sonia Gandhi Tuesday appointed Maken, a party general secretary, to head the 101-member campaign committee for the Feb 7 polls.

"We have constituted a campaign committee for Delhi elections. Ajay Maken will head the committee as the chairman," he said.

Maken said he was the only Congress leader to return to contest assembly elections after having won the Lok Sabha elections twice.

The former union minister urged the electorate to give chance to a representative like him who was "trusted and tested" and had years of administrative experience in Delhi.

Although the party refrained from formally announcing Maken as its chief ministerial candidate, Congress sources told IANS that his annointment "essentially means he will be the face of the Congress in Delhi".

In his mainstream political career that spans over 21 years, Maken, 64, has won three elections to the Delhi assembly and twice to parliament.

Beginning his political journey as president of the Delhi University Student's Union in 1985, he became the youngest member of the Delhi assembly in 1993 at the age of 29. In 2001, he was transport, power and tourism minister in the Sheila Dikshit cabinet.

In 2003, he was elected as speaker of the assembly.

He first became MP in 2004, and was re-elected in 2009 during which he had thrice been in the union council of ministers.

Meanwhile, Chacko, scorching all media speculation resulting from Dikshit's proposal for a post-poll alliance with the AAP in case of a fractured mandate, said: "We don't endorse any such opinion that we will be supporting any alliance."

He said the results of the Delhi Cantonment Board polls, where the Congress came second close to the Bharatiya Janata Party that won three out of five seats, reflected a change in people's "mood".

So "post-election scenario we can't predict now. We are going to play a major role in Delhi politics," he added.