Buoyed by the overwhelming election results in the Capital, the Aam Aadmi Party is now eyeing the upcoming lok Sabha elections to make its presence widely felt across the nation.
Preparations have begun in full swing with the formation of a two-member committee of its prominent members who will work on the party’s strategy and selection of candidates from across the country.
The two-member committee comprising AAP’s national executive members Sanjay Singh and Pankaj Gupta will finalize the candidates for lok Sabha polls after screening them. “After a meeting of the PAC members, it has been decided that a sub-committee of two members- Sanjay Singh and Pankaj Gupta will take care of the strategy and also select candidates by screening the applicants,” announced party’s Parliamentary Affairs Committee member Yogendra Yadav at a Press conference in the party office on Thursday.
“A form has been prepared for those who wish to contest the lok Sabha elections and have a clean background. The applicants will have fill in all details in the form which can be found on the AAP website,” said Sanjay Singh, adding that each applicant will additionally have to show signatures of 100 people from each of the assembly segments falling in each parliamentary constituency.
On being asked about the genuineness of the 100 people who will sign in support of an applicant, the leaders said that they had a mechanism in place. “Those who will sign for an applicant will have to provide their phone numbers also. We will personally verify the details the way we have done in Delhi elections,” said Singh.
In the form which is available in both Hindi and English, the candidate will have to give his personal details along with family background. The party has its units in 309 districts across the country but has not cleared the name and number of the states it will be contesting from. lok Sabha seats it plans to contest.
“AAP has its local units in a total of 309 districts of the country, including Assam, Karnataka, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Odisha, Maharashtra and Gujarat. All the party units have become ready for the general elections. We have been working in 309 districts but can’t tell you in how many states we will contest elections,” Yadav said.