AAP eyes Mamata Banerjee, Chandrababu Naidu for Lok Sabha election campaign

AAP is preparing a list of those who will campaign for it in the national capital for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee (File | PTI)
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee (File | PTI)

NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party is considering inviting some prominent leaders, including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu, to campaign for it in Delhi for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha, who has quit the Bharatiya Janata Party, and disgruntled BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha are also among those the party is looking at to woo voters in the national capital. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will, however, hold centre stage, a party leader said.

Once the names are approved, invitations will be sent to the leaders, the AAP leader said.

Other prominent figures from the anti-BJP alliance being formed by opposition parties are also likely to be invited to canvas votes for AAP candidates.

They include Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav and Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Sitaram Yechury.
Actors-turned-politicians Kamal Haasan and Prakash Raj are also being considered as campaigners, the AAP leader said. 

On Saturday, AAP announced candidates for six of the seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital. The party, which holds the administrative reins in Delhi, vowed to fight the BJP and the Congress with the same vigour and zeal as in the 2014 Assembly elections, in which it posted a landslide victory.
The AAP leaders in Delhi have been campaigning for the polls for several weeks now, and Kejriwal has been holding public rallies in different parts of the city almost every day.

In its campaign, the party is highlighting the developmental work it has done in the national capital in the past four years, and will also stress the need for Delhi to be given full statehood.

During the budget session of the Delhi Assembly last month, Kejriwal had announced that he would start an indefinite fast on March 1 demanding full statehood for Delhi, but called off the fast in view of the situation arising from the air strike launched by India against a terrorist camp in Pakistan and Pakistan’s subsequent retaliatory action.

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