The Congress and BJP may call it a new party, but the leaders of ‘established’ political outfits are lining up at AAP’s door to contest the upcoming assembly polls.
In its second list of candidates for the assembly polls announced on Saturday, out of 13 nominees, six hailed from different political parties.
Hazari Lal Chauhan, a former senior Congress leader who was defeated in the last civic elections by two votes, was announced AAP’s candidate from reserved Patel Nagar constituency. Interestingly, the party dropped sitting MLA Veena Anand who defeated BJP stalwart SP Ratwal in last year’s assembly polls. Chauhan is first cousin of former Delhi PWD minister Raj Kumar Chauhan.
Similarly, the party has fielded former BJP legislator Ram Niwas Goel from Shahdara constituency. Goel had been a BJP MLA from the constituency from 1993 to 1998. He is said to have joined AAP because he was denied a ticket from BJP.
The AAP announced the candidature of former BJP councillor Raghavendra Shaukeen from Nangloi Jat constituency. Shaukeen won the 2007 civic elections from Kamruddindin Nagar in Nangloi Jat as an independent candidate. He later joined BJP and fought 2012 civic polls as the party’s candidate. However, he resigned from the party before the Lok Sabha polls to join AAP.
Another such candidate is former Lok Dal corporator from Ballimaran, Imran Hussain, who hase been fielded from the same (Ballimaran) seat. Hussain fought last year’s assembly elections as a BSP candidate and secured third position.
The party has now announced candidates for 35 of the 70 assembly constituencies, which include three women. In the first list, the party had announced names of 22 candidates including 12 sitting legislators.