Candidates chosen based on their performance: AAP
LIST FOR ASSEMBLY POLLS Aam Aadmi Party Delhi convener Gopal Rai said the candidates were chosen entirely on the basis of surveys that the party had conducted in each of Delhi’s 70 constituencies in the past three months
NEWDELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday sounded the election bugle, fielding 46 of its MLAS from the same constituencies they contested in the 2015 polls, and bringing 23 fresh faces for the February 8 assembly elections in Delhi.
AAP’S Rajya Sabha MP and campaign in-charge Sanjay Singh said the candidates have been chosen keeping in mind that their re-election would help maintain the pace of the ongoing development works of t he incumbent government.
Of the names that have been dropped, 21 candidates were those who went on to become MLAS in the 2015 assembly elections. The AAP had won the 2015 Delhi polls with a crushing majority of 67 out of 70 seats and a vote share of 54.3%.
AAP’S Delhi convener Gopal Rai said, “Some MLAS were dropped and new candidates were selected entirely on the basis of surveys that the party had conducted in each of Delhi’s 70 constituencies in the past three months. The manifesto of the party will be released immediately after the selected candidates are done submitting their nomination papers.”
Delhi goes to the polls on February 8 and the results are scheduled on February 11. The candidate can file their nominations till January 21. Senior AAP leaders, on condition of anonymity, said the party’s manifesto is likely to be released on January 19.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will contest from New Delhi seat – the one from which he was elected in 2015 and 2013, when he defeated Congress’ three-time chief minister Sheila Dikshit.
All ministers in his cabinet – all of them MLAS – have retained their seats. They include deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, transport and revenue minister Kailash Gahlot, labour minister Gopal Rai, health minister Satyendar Jain, food minister Imran Hussain and social welfare minister Rajendra Pal Gautam.
Senior functionaries of the party said other than the cabinet ministers, MLAS such as Saurabh Bharadwaj (Greater Kailash), Somnath Bharti (Malviya Nagar) and Dinesh Mohaniya (Sangam Vihar) were among the top performers in the party’s internal survey. The ones who struggled to make it to the list were Akhilesh Tripathi (Model Town), SD Sharma (Ghonda), Bhavna Gaur (Palam) and Naresh Yadav (Mehrauli).
NEW FACES
Prominent among the new faces were party’s three candidates for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. They are Atishi (Kalkaji constituency), who is an Oxford postgraduate and played an important role in reviving Delhi’s education system with deputy chief minister Manish Si s odia, Raghav Chadha (Rajendra Nagar constituency), a chartered accountant by profession who returned from London and joined the India Against Corruption Movement in 2011, and Dilip Pandey (Timarpur constituency), who is an engineer.
“I was born i n Rajendra Nagar. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has given me an opportunity to turn my janambhoomi (place of birth) into my karam bhoomi (place of work). The problems in the area are varied – from water and sewer lines to parking issues. If voted to power, I will ensure that people in the constituency never get a chance to complaint,” said Chadha.
Another important fresh face for the party is Durgesh Pathak, who too has been an ally of the AAP since the India Against Corruption Movement days, and is a member of the party’s political affairs committee. Pathak will replace rebel AAP leader and disqualified MLA Kapil Mishra, who is likely to contest from the same seat for the BJP.
“My first priority will be to work for the residents and bring the area into the list of most performing and developed assembly segments. I will rely on door-todoor campaign. I believe in positive politics. In the last five years, the AAP government did lot of work such as opening of mohalla clinics to installation of CCTVS in the Karawal Nagar constituency. I will highlight these works during my campaign,” said Pathak.
WOMEN CANDIDATES
The party’s has fielded eight women candidates this time, compared to six in 2015. Of the eight women candidates, three are new faces.
Atishi is among the prominent women candidates. She had contested the Lok Sabha polls from the East Delhi parliamentary segment. “When we started out , nobody believed that anyone could transform the government education system in Delhi. We did it. And I believe, if the right people are elected in the right position, change is possible. I will dedicate myself to the people of Kalkaji and deliver AAP’S flagship policies of education and healthcare,” said Atishi.
Former MLA Alka Lamba, who has left the party and joined Congress, is prominent among those who have been denied t i c k e t . L a mb a w a s A A P MLA from Chandni Chowk and senior Congress functionaries hinted that she might be fielded from the same constituency.
Dhanwati Chandela and Rajkumari Dhillon, a former Congress councillor, are among the new faces who have been given tickets.
DROPPED NAMES & TURNCOATS
Other than five disqualified MLAS who were once with the
AAP – including Kapil Mishra, Alka Lamba, Devender Sehrawat, Anil Bajpai and Sandeep Kumar – other prominent names who were dropped include Surender Singh, MLA of Delhi cantonment, Pankaj Pushkar, MLA of Timarpur, Dwarka MLA Adarsh Shastri, Asim Ahmed Khan o f Matia Mahal, ND Sharma of Badarpur and Haji Ishraque of Seelampur.
Of the MLAS dropped, as many as nine were replaced by candidates who are turncoats. Some prominent names among them are five-time MLA Shoaib Iqbal who will contest from Matia Mahal and former Congress heavyweight and four-time MLA Prahlad Shawney.
“Development of the old city will be my prime focus. The priorities will be addressing traffic c o ngest i o n a nd s e werage issues,” said Iqbal.
Delhi Cantt MLA Surender Singh said that he might contest as an independent. “In the next few days, I will ask people in my constituency about what went wrong. I may contest as an independent candidate. It all depends on what the people say. I will always keep fighting for issues that affect people from the armed forces,” he said.
The Badarpur MLA, ND Sharma, on Tuesday said he quit the AAP and feels “betrayed” by the top leadership. His supporters on Monday staged a protest outside deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia’s house. “The party has become greedy and charged money to give tickets to candidates,” he alleged. The AAP, however, distanced itself from Sharma and refused to comment on his allegations.
Some MLAS whose names figures in some controversies such as Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan, Parkash Jarwal, Tomar and Bharti have been retained.
While Bharti and Tomar were arrested by the police in separate cases, Jarwal and Khan were accused of physically assaulting former chief secretary Anshu Prakash. Khan was also in focus for being actively present in Jamia Nagar protests, which witnessed violence at least on t wo s eparate occasions in December.