NEW DELHI: Putting an end to speculations over its candidate from West Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday announced Balbir Singh Jhakar as its pick.
Elections to the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi will be held on May 12.The results will be declared on May 23.
Delhi minister and AAP leader Gopal Rai said the party has waited long enough for an alliance with the Congress but seeing the “irresponsible and indecisive” attitude of the grand old party, the AAP decided to declare its seventh candidate.
“The AAP has declared all its seven candidates. We waited long for all Opposition parties to join hands to beat the (NDA) government but the way the Congress is behaving and has been indecisive for the past three months, we decided to take its movement (for full statehood for Delhi) forward,” Rai said.
While the party had put out a list of candidates for six of the seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital on March 2, it did not name its candidate for West Delhi, leaving room for speculation.
Rai had said that some names were being discussed and the party would pick its candidate for the seat later.
A practising lawyer, Jhakar had been one of the prominent faces of activist Anna Hazare’s ‘India Against Corruption’ movement and is a long-time AAP loyalist. He is the chairman of the co-ordination committee of All Delhi District Court Bar Association.
Jhakar has been vested with the responsibility of steering the party’s fortunes in the seat, which is currently held by Parvesh Sahib Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He is the son of BJP leader and former Delhi CM Sahib Singh Verma.
After announcing candidates for six seats, the party said its poll campaign will centre on its renewed push for full statehood for the national capital. The party has put together 1,000 teams for a three-layered mass contact programme ahead of the polls.