AAP gears up for Delhi election, puts out first list of 11 candidates

Six had switched to the ruling party in the last two months, three each from the BJP and the Congress

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday announced its first list of 11 candidates for the Delhi Assembly election scheduled for February next year. Both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress are yet to announce their candidates.

Out of the 11 candidates, six had switched to the ruling party in the last two months, three each from the BJP and the Congress. The party has dropped three of its sitting MLAs.

The names were announced after a meeting of AAP’s political affairs committee, the highest decision-making body of the party, which is headed by party national convener Arvind Kejriwal.

AAP has been in power in Delhi since 2015 and had won 67 of the 70 seats in the 2015 Assembly poll and 62 seats in the 2020 poll.

‘Set to launch campaign’

Addressing mediapersons, AAP Delhi convener Gopal Rai said, “With the announcement of candidates, AAP has now geared up to accelerate its campaign for the Assembly election. Starting today, AAP is preparing to launch a massive campaign across the city. The details will be shared soon.”

Mr. Rai said AAP remains confident that under the leadership of Mr. Kejriwal, the people will re-elect the party in the election to continue the momentum of progress and development in the Capital.

The AAP leader said the candidates were announced early as eight of these 11 constituencies currently do not have AAP MLAs. “To strengthen its campaign in these areas, the party has prioritised them in the first list.”

The BJP and the Congress targeted AAP over giving tickets to leaders from other parties who had joined it as recently as Sunday. The BJP said six candidates being entrants from other parties showed that AAP is scared of “anti-incumbency”. The Congress alleged that Mr. Kejriwal was desperate to save his party as three of the 11 candidates in the first list were “Congress discards”.

Published - November 22, 2024 01:39 am IST