MillenniumPost
Delhi

AAP lists 44 candidates for twelve Assembly seats

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal on Friday claimed that people from the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress were in touch with them for the forthcoming Delhi Assembly election later this year. Kejriwal said that various chief ministerial aspirants have conveyed to his party that in case their chances are diminished in their own parties, they will support AAP.

Kejriwal, along with other AAP leaders Prashant Bhushan, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Gopal Rai and a few other short listed candidates, was speaking at a function where the list of 44 short listed candidates for 12 assembly constituencies was released. He said that by the middle of the next month, the party expects to announce the first list of final candidates, while hoping to announce the final names for all seats by the end of July.

The party has short listed five candidates each for Greater Kailash assembly constituency and Trilokpuri, four each for Kondli, Najafgarh, Patparganj and Seemapuri, and three each for Bijwasan, Malviya Nagar, Matia Mahal, Matiala, RK Puram and Sadar Bazar. The party said that no applications will be entertained now for these seats but would accept applications for other constituencies.

Among the short listed candidates are media personality and AAP member Shazia Ilmi from RK Puram and Manish Sisodia from Patparganj, while advocate Somnath Bharti has been short listed from Malviya Nagar. When asked why his name was missing from the list, Kejriwal said that he has not made his decision on the same yet.

According to the party, it received a total of 106 applications from advocates, journalists, engineers, former defence officials, resident welfare association office bearers, social activists and supporters from other political parties, including Congress and BJP.

 It said that it has taken extra caution on the candidature of other political parties and have carefully checked their background. It said that it has also refused the candidature of many contenders from other political parties.

Explaining the next steps that will be taken, Kejriwal said that the details of short listed candidates, such as their past record, occupation, property, cases, if any, against them, and their introduction, would be put up on the web site for 15 days and the party would invite suggestions and information, both positive and negative, from the public and volunteers and then the final selection would be made.

‘The final 12 would be selected after recommendations from grassroot-level workers and selection committee after proper consultation and debate among them,’ said Kejriwal.

The party said that these candidates had been selected after screening, interviews, verification of their criminal antecedents and popularity among locals. ‘We wanted to ensure that candidates do not have any criminal case against them. They have to be honest, have a clean image in the locality and no two persons should belong to the same family.

We have also tried to discourage nepotism and dynastic politics,’ said Kejriwal.

On the occassion, Kejriwal also revealed that his party has received around Rs two crore in the past two months through internet banking for contesting the election, adding that anybody can visit the party site to see the list of donors.

He said that there were people who wanted to donate to his party but at the same time they also wanted to remain anonymous fearing action by the government, but his party has rejected this demand as it is the very reason for corruption among national and other political parties.

Kejriwal, accusing Congress and BJP of misusing public money on advertisements, demanded from that the parties return the public money.

‘I congratulate the Delhi Lokayukta for indicting Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for allegedly misusing the public money for advertisements,’ he said.
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