NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party might field its Lok Sabha candidate Pankaj Gupta from Chandni Chowk in the next Assembly elections, sources have said.
Gupta might replace AAP MLA Alka Lamba, who last Sunday said she had decided to resign from the party and contest the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls as an independent candidate.
Lamba has been at odds with the AAP leadership since last year after she opposed a party resolution calling for the Bharat Ratna award is given to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi to be withdrawn.
Gupta got 1.44 lakh of the 9.8 lakh votes cast in the Chandni Chowk constituency in the Lok Sabha polls and lost his security deposit.
Sources said Gupta had been asked to start preparing for contesting the Assembly polls.
The AAP is also looking for suitable candidates for Karawal Nagar, Bijwasan and Gandhi Nagar, whose MLAs, Kapil Mishra, Anil Kumar Bajpai, and Devender Sehrawat, have been disqualified from the Assembly.
According to sources, former BJP leader from Bijwasan, Kishan Kumar Sehrawat, is being considered for replacing Devender, while party member Durgesh Pathak might replace Mishra.
The AAP has already started assessment of its MLAs for the upcoming polls.
The party’s national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal last month chaired a meeting of party MLAs to review a public outreach programme launched after the party lost the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi.
Poll preparation
The AAP has started assessment of its MLAs for the upcoming Assembly polls. It has also launched an outreach programme to find out people’s problems.