AAP names candidates for all 70 seats in Delhi polls

New Delhi: With less than a month to go for the Delhi Assembly elections, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday named candidates for all 70 seats in the national Capital. Of this, as many as 46 legislators are repeat candidates.

The document released by the party's political affairs committee named Manish Sisodia as the candidate from Patparganj, Satyendar Jain from Shakur Basti, Kailash Gahlot from Najafgarh, Rajendra Pal Gautam from Seemapuri, Gopal Rai from Barbarpur, Atishi from Kalkaji, SK Bagga from Krishna Nagar and Imran Hussain from Ballimaran.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will contest from the New Delhi constituency. "Best wishes to all. Don't be complacent. Work v hard. People have lot of faith in AAP and u. God bless," he tweeted after the list was released on Tuesday evening.

Out of the 70 candidates, 15 existing MLAs have been replaced and nine new candidates have been introduced. The BJP and Congress are yet to release their candidate lists.

Sitting MLAs who will not get a chance to defend their seats include Adarsh Shastri from Dwarka, Jagdeep Singh from Hari Nagar, Narayan Dutt Sharma from Badarpur, and Commando Surendra Singh from Delhi Cantonment. Current MLA Aseem Ahmed Khan from Matia Mahal was removed to accommodate Shoaib Iqbal, who joined AAP from Congress earlier in the month.

The AAP is fielding Vinay Kumar Mishra, who is the son of Purvanchali heavyweight Mahabal Mishra, from Dwarka instead of Adarsh Shastri, who is former PM Lal Bahadur Shastri's grandson. Mishra is expected to lure the Purvanchali youth in the Assembly elections with Dilip Pandey from Timarpur grabbing the Purvanchali vote bank which can be a game-changer for the AAP.

In a bid to woo women voters, women seat holders have been increased from six seats to eight. There are three new faces — Atishi from Kalkaji, Dhanwati Chandela from Rajouri Garden, Rajkumari Dhillon from Hari Nagar.

Many new changes are seen in the list with four-time former Congress MLA Parlad Singh Sawhney, who had joined the AAP last year will be contesting from Chandi Chowk – earlier contested by Alka Lamba. The party is fielding Durgesh Pathak from Karawal Nagar, a seat earlier won by Kapil Mishra who later turned against the party.

The Delhi Assembly elections are scheduled for February 8 and the votes will be counted three days later. The Election Commission has already enforced the model code of conduct for the polls, which will see the ruling AAP facing off against the Congress and a resurgent BJP.