Sounding the bugle for the upcoming lok Sabha elections, debutant Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced its first list of 20 candidates on Sunday. The party has fielded former journalist and its spokesperson Ashutosh against Union law Minister Kapil Sibal who will contest from the Chandni Chowk seat. Among the other prominent names are Kumar Vishwas who will challenge Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi seat.
Mukul Tripathi will be pitted against Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid from the Farrukhabad seat, while senior advocate HS Phoolka will contest from ludhiana against Information & Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari. Activist Medha Patkar will make her electoral debut from Mumbai (North-East), while senior AAP leader Yogendra Yadav will contest from Gurgaon. Real-estate developer and the convener of Maharashtra State unit of AAP Anjali Damania will challenge former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur.
With AAP’s entry the upcoming lok Sabha elections will no longer be a contest between the two oldest parties - Congress and BJP - and the nation will witness a triangular political battle. Declaring its first list of candidates post the meeting of its Political Affairs Committee, senior leader Manish Sisodia said, “Today we have announced the names of first 20 candidates. The selection of all these candidates has been done on the basis of their contribution to the society.” Asserting that the motto of the party to cleanse Indian politics, he added, “While choosing the candidates, we have tried to prevent the corrupt and the people facing criminal charges.” The party had earlier announced that it will go for the lok Sabha elections with dual motives of corruption-free politics and not fielding candidates with criminal background.
Other prominent names include Subhash Ware who will contest against Suresh Kalmadi in Pune, former banker Meera Sanyal will contest against Congress MP Milind Deora, Baba Hardeve is fielded against former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Mulayam Singh Yadav, Khalid Parvez will contest against former cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin and party’s national executive member, Mayank Gandhi will contest against Gurudas Kamat.
The anti-corruption crusader turned politician Anjali Damania said, “I have got a big responsibility. Earlier I thought I wouldn’t fight lok Sabha or Assembly polls. We need to fight one-to-one against corruption. Arvind Kejriwal has said the same thing to me. I will fight to my fullest.” The announcement of the first list came less than 24 hours after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Cabinet Ministers announced their resignation.
AAP top brass refused to make any announcement regarding Kejriwal contesting the upcoming elections but asserted that the elections will be fought under his leadership. Contrary to the party’s earlier announcement that it will contest elections from 350 seats out of 543, party sources said that AAP will try to limit its seats. There is a strong opinion in the party to focus on its key pockets neighbouring Delhi such as Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana as well as Mumbai. This will offer better prospects of winning for the party.
The party also launched its ‘jhadu chalao, corruption bhagao’ awareness campaign, which will continue till February 23. “The yatra will be conducted in 332 lok Sabha constituencies across 24 States. During the campaign, we will expose the Congress and the BJP for defending the corrupt,” party leader Gopal Rai said.