JOIN USRiding on a wave of popularity, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday lined up a string of social activists and former journalists to take on well-entrenched politicians, including Nitin Gadkari and Rahul Gandhi, in the Lok Sabha elections.
The party fielded poet-turned-politician Kumar Vishwas to take on Congress vice-president Gandhi in his pocket-borough of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh while RTI activist Anjali Damania will be in the fray in Nagpur, from where former BJP president Nitin Gadkari is tipped to contest the polls.
Medha Patkar, who spearheaded the Narmada Bachao Andolan, will test the electoral waters from Mumbai North-East, while Mayank Gandhi will be the party's candidate in Mumbai North-west, where the Congress is expected to repeat sitting MP Gurudas Kamat.
Noted psephologist Yogendra Yadav will be the AAP candidate from Gurgaon in Haryana. It may be noted that Congress MP from Gurgaon Rao Inderjit Singh joined the BJP last week.
Former corporate banker Meera Sanyal will be the AAP candidate from Mumbai South, represented by Rahul Gandhi's confidant and Central minister Milind Deora. Sanyal had unsuccessfully contested the 2009 elections as an independent candidate from the same constituency.
Former television journalist Ashutosh will take on Union Law Minister Kapil Sibal in Delhi's Chandni Chowk, a constituency the latter has represented for two terms.
Another former journalist, Jarnail Singh, who had thrown a shoe in at then home minister P Chidambaram in 2009 at a Congress media briefing, will be the AAP candidate from West Delhi, which is currently represented by the Congress' Mahabal Mishra.
Among other AAP candidates, Mukul Tripathi will contest from the Farrukhabad constituency, represented by External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, while former civil servant Baba Hardev Singh will take on Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh from Mainpuri.
Social activist Khalid Parwez is to contest from the Moradabad constituency.
The announcement of candidates by the AAP comes on a day when party convenor Arvind Kejriwal said he was undecided about contesting the Lok Sabha elections.