The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday released the full list of 70 candidates for the Delhi Assembly elections on February 8.
All seven AAP Ministers got party tickets and three of the 2019 Delhi Lok Sabha election AAP candidates — Atishi, Dilip Pandey, and Raghav Chadha — made it to the list. Also, leaders who joined the party in the last one week — Ram Singh Netaji, Vinay Mishra, and Shoaib Iqbal — got the tickets. The party has announced 24 new faces while 15 sitting MLAs have been dropped.
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The other two parties — the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party — are yet to announce their candidates for the elections.
“Best wishes to all. Don’t be complacent. Work v hard. People have lot of faith in AAP and u. God bless [sic]," AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal said in a tweet.
Of the existing 61 MLAs, 46 have made it to the list and the party has fielded eight women candidates, compared to six in 2015, said senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia.
“The Aam Aadmi Party’s political affairs committee has approved the names of candidates for all 70 seats for the Delhi Assembly elections. Existing MLAs will contest elections on 46 seats, and in place of 15 existing MLAs and nine vacant seats, there will be new faces. Of these [70 candidates], eight are women. In 2015, there were six women [candidates],” Mr. Sisodia said in a tweet.
In the 2015 Assembly elections, AAP had swept 67 of the 70 seats in Delhi. Later, the BJP won the Rajouri Garden bypoll after AAP legislator Jarnail Singh vacated the seat to contest in Punjab Assembly elections in 2017.
In 2019, after the Lok Sabha election, five AAP MLAs were disqualified by Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel under the anti-defection law.
AAP is also expected to come out with its election manifesto later this week.
The last date for filing of nominations is January 21 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is January 24. The elections results will be out on February 11.
Published - January 14, 2020 08:10 pm IST