In the second list of lok Sabha elections aspirants, the Aam Aadmi Party is likely to announce three more names for Delhi’s parliamentary constituencies. According to party sources, candidatures of Shazia Ilmi, Gopal Rai and Pankaj Gupta have been cleared and an announcement in this regard may be made within a week. Party is still doing scrutiny of applications for North-West lok Sabha seat and it may take more time in seal the nomination from here which is a reserved constituency.
Ilmi, who lost RK Puram Assembly seat last year by whisker, 326 votes, may be fielded from North East Delhi seat. Given the sizable presence of minority votes in the region, former journalist became an obvious pick for the party. She is also prominent woman face of the party.
Sources said Gopal Rai who was defeated from Babarpur seat may be allotted party ticket from East Delhi seat from where former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s son Sandeep Dikshit is representing. The region is dominated by migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and Rai also belongs to the same region. Rai has been associated with student politics in Allahabad and lucknow. The naïve party performed beyond the expectation in the last Assembly polls as people from Poorvanchal region voted for the AAP en-mass.
Sources said that Gupta’s name from south Delhi seat has also been finalised and will be released within a week along. “Gupta is a professional engineer and having a professional experience of 25 years. He has worked on various senior positions in software companies and resigned to take active social work. He has also been associated with Jan lokpal movement since the beginning,” said an AAP leader.
In the first list of 20 candidates for parliamentary elections released recently, the party had declared candidatures of known journalist Ashutosh and Jarnail Singh from Chandni Chowk and West Delhi respectively.