Aam Aadmi Party leader Shazia Ilmi, tribal activist Soni Sori and the country’s first woman DGP Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya made it to the party’s sixth list of Lok Sabha candidates announced on Saturday. The party so far has declared candidates for 242 seats.
Ilmi, the party’s candidate from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, was reportedly upset over the party not giving her an LS ticket from any of the seven constituencies in Delhi. The former journalist had turned down the party’s suggestion to contest from Rae Bareli, a seat held by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
Ilmi had unsuccessfully contested the Delhi Assembly elections from R K Puram last year. Meanwhile, the Congress has announced that Bollywood actor Raj Babbar would contest from Ghaziabad constituency, a seat currently represented by BJP chief Rajnath Singh.
Tribal activist and school teacher Soni Sori would contest from Naxal-affected Bastar in Chhattisgarh. Sori, who was accused of helping Naxals and lodged in Raipur jail by the Chhattisgarh Government, was granted regular bail by the Supreme Court last month. She joined the party in February and has expressed her wish to contest the elections.
Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya, who became the country’s first woman Director-General of Police when she took over as police chief of Uttarakhand, has been given an AAP ticket from Haridwar in Uttarakhand.