Delhi Assembly polls: AAP releases first list of 11 candidates

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday declared its first list of 11 candidates for the Delhi Assembly polls due in February next year.

Leaders from the BJP and Congress, who had recently switched to the Arvind Kejriwal-led party, figured in the list.

Brahma Singh Tanwar will contest from Chhatarpur while Anil Jha, BB Tyagi and Manoj Tyagi will be party’s candidate from Kirari, Laxmi Nagar and Karawal Nagar, respectively. All of them had recently quit the BJP and joined the AAP.

Meanwhile, the AAP fielded Zubair Chaudhary (Seelampur), Veer Singh Dhingan (Seemapuri) and Somesh Shokeen (Matiala), who recently joined the AAP after quitting the Congress.

Sarita Singh (Rohtas Nagar), Ram Singh Netaji (Badarpur), Gaurav Sharma (Ghonda) and Deepak Singhal (Vishwas Nagar) were the other candidates whose names were announced by the party.

The names were announced after a meeting of the AAP's political affairs committee (PAC) headed by party convener Kejriwal.

AAP's PAC include Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, Rajya Sabha MPs Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha, MLAs Durgesh Pathak, Gopal Rai, Imran Hussain, and Rakhi Bidlan.

Kejriwal said earlier that tickets for the elections will be distributed based on the work, public opinion and winning chances of the probables.

“I will not give tickets to any relative, acquaintance or friend. There will be no nepotism. I will evaluate candidates based on their work, chances of winning, and public opinion," he had said.

He termed the upcoming elections as “dharma yuddha” and said that the BJP was trying to win it at all costs.

The AAP won 62 of the 70 Assembly seats in the last elections held in 2020.