Attacked by the rivals for being a “party of outsiders”, Aam Aadmi Party is seriously considering the name of shoe-thrower Jarnail Singh against five-time Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal from his citadel lambi.
Party sources maintained that his candidature is “almost final”. It is expected that his name would be announced by Delhi Chief Minister and party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal during AAP’s December 28 rally at Kolianwali village in lambi.
The journalist-turned-politician, Singh is currently AAP’s Punjab co-incharge and is also MlA from Rajaouri Garden in Delhi Assembly.
A former scribe with a Hindi daily, Singh’s claim to fame was his act of throwing a shoe towards the then Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram during a press conference at Delhi in 2009. He had maintained that he was “angered over clean chit to Sajjan Singh and Jagdish Tytler for their alleged involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots”.
It has been learnt that the party is in dire straits over selection of candidates, especially against the prominent leaders. A senior AAP leader told The Pioneer that though it wanted to field the local faces, but popularity, too, play a major role and would be able to give a tough contest against the major players.
“We don’t have many names to field against political bigwigs…We changed Shergill’s (Himmat Singh Shergill) constituency from Mohali to Majitha to put up a challenge against Bikram Majithia. Already Bhagwant Mann is fielded against Sukhbir Badal,” the leader said.
Available information suggests that the party was also thinking on the lines of changing advocate HS Phoolka’s constituency from Dakha to lambi. Reportedly, a section of AAP leaders are unhappy over fielding an “outsider” Jarnail Singh at a time when the rival political parties are targeting it for being a “party of outsiders”.