AAP to put 44 candidates to test for Assembly polls

Locals, party workers, screening panel will select final 12

 In a first-of-its-kind experiment in Indian politics, Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party on Friday announced the names of 44 shortlisted candidates for the Delhi Assembly polls to let the public scrutinise and choose the best possible candidates out of these.

The 44 names have been selected from a total of 106 applications received by the party office, and they will now have to get the go-ahead from locals, party workers and the screening committee before their names are finalised for a particular constituency. 

“While these 44 names out of 106 have been selected by the candidate screening committee, the final 12 will be selected only after recommendations of workers and the selection committee after proper consultations and debate among them,” said Kejriwal.

“The names will be uploaded on the party’s website, and people can tell us about any corruption or misdemeanour by these candidates,” he said while announcing the names of the selected candidates for the 12 constituencies.

Apart from an IIT engineer and a retired army Colonel, senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia and journalist Shazia Ilmi have also filled forms to contest elections. Manish has chosen Patparganj seat while Ilmi has chosen R K Puram constituency. AAP has also shortlisted five candidates each for Greater Kailash Assembly constituency and Trilokpuri; four each for Kondli, Najafgarh, Patparganj and Seemapuri, and three each for Bijwasan, Malviya Nagar, Matia Mahal, Matiala, Rama Krishna Puram and Sadar Bazar.

Kejriwal said enough time was given to everybody to submit forms to contest polls, and no new application will be considered by the party from these 12 seats.

“Of course candidature is open for the remaining 58 constituencies, and one is welcome to fill the required forms from there,” said Kejriwal.

The main focus of the party is to remove corrupt and criminal people, he added.

Criminal cases

He alleged that in the last Delhi Assembly elections, Congress and BJP had fielded 19 candidates with criminal cases, while Bahujan Samaj Party had 15 such candidates.
On the funds required to contest elections, Kejriwal said over Rs 2 crore has been collected in the past two months and the entire detail has been given on the party’s website along with the name of donors.

“We do not accept discreet donations,” said Kejriwal.

The final list of AAP candidates is expected to be declared by the last week of June.