NEW DELHI: There are 24 new faces in the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) list of 70 candidates, announced on Tuesday, for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections.
Of the 24, five have been assigned to contest from seats vacated by former AAP lawmakers who defected from the party. Four others will contest from seats where the party lost to the BJP in the last election.
Meanwhile, 15 sitting MLAs found their names dropped from the candidates’ list to pave the way for fresh faces. Those dropped include party’s chief whip in the Assembly Jagdeep Singh, former NSG Commando Surender Singh who killed two terrorists during the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and Adarsh Shastri, the grandson of Lal Bahadur Shastri. Vinay Kumar Mishra, the son of former Congress MP Mahabal Mishra, will contest in place of Adarsh in the Dwarka constituency.
The new candidates include Atishi Marlena, Dilip Pandey and Raghav Chadha, who unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, and five others who recently defected from the Congress.
A party leader said all the candidates were selected after a careful deliberation. “The sitting MLAs whose performances were not up to the mark have all been replaced,” he said.
Soon after the list was out, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal tweeted saying, "Best wishes to all. Work very hard. People have lot of trust in AAP." Kejriwal will contest from New Delhi seat for the third time.
His deputy Manish Sisodia too would be seeking reelection from his existing seat of Patparganj segment. AAP has also given tickets to five lawmakers who defected from the Congress. They include veteran leader from Chandni Chowk Parlad Singh Sawhney and prominent Muslim leader Shoaib Iqbal from Matia Mahal.