NEW DELHI: The AAP on Tuesday announced four candidates from Delhi and one from Haryana for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, days after it finalised the seat-sharing deal with INDIA bloc ally Congress.
After a meeting of the AAP’s Political Affairs Committee, party’s national general secretary (organisation) Sandeep Pathak said that Somnath Bharti would contest from the New Delhi seat, Sahi Ram from South Delhi, Mahabal Mishra from West Delhi and Kuldeep Kumar from East Delhi. In Haryana, Sushil Gupta will contest from Kurukshetra.
“As part of INDIA bloc, we are contesting polls in five states. AAP candidates will contest 23 seats. We earlier announced five candidates (three in Assam and two in Gujarat); today we are announcing the names of five more candidates,” Pathak said.
AAP Delhi convener Gopal Rai said a “historic decision” has been made in respect of East Delhi by fielding a Schedule Caste candidate on a general category seat. “Perhaps for the first time in Delhi, a party is taking the decision to field a reserved category candidate from a general seat,” he said.
Rai said that the candidates have been chosen after meticulous calculations to ensure that they win. “It has been decided that it is our responsibility to do our part in the INDIA alliance winning most seats,” Rai added.
In a post on ‘X’, CM Arvind Kejriwal said the AAP is fulfilling the dream of Babasaheb Ambedkar by giving a ticket to a person from the SC community from a general seat.
“East Delhi is a general category seat. From here, we have given a ticket to Kuldeep Kumar of the SC community. No party gives tickets to SC community from general seats. Only AAP is fulfilling Babasaheb’s dream, Kejriwal posted on his ‘X’ handle.