AAP Announces Candidates for All 70 Constituencies

889592-aap-arvind-kejriwal NEW DELHI : The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party today named candidates for all 70 seats in the national capital. Of this, as many as 46 legislators are repeat candidates.Elections to be held on February 8. The party has rejigged its roster, dropping several sitting MLAs and inducting several fresh faces.
AAP has fielded Atishi from Kalkaji constituency while Raghav Chaddha will contest from Rajindra Nagar. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will once again contest from New Delhi constituency, from where he had defeated his predecessor Sheila Dikshit the last time around.
The document released by the party’s political affairs committee named Manish Sisodia as the candidate from Patparganj, Satyendra Jain from Shakur Basti, Jitendra Tomar from Tri Nagar, Jarnail Singh from Tilak Nagar, Atishi from Kalkaji and SK Bagga from Krishna Nagar constituencies. While 15 of these turned out to be sitting MLAs, six fresh names were announced.
Other major changes include Vinay Mishra, the son of Purvanchali heavyweight Mahabal Mishra, from Dwarka instead of sitting MLA Adarsh Shastri, who is the grandson of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.
The decision could prove to be controversial since Adarsh had left his high paying job in Apple Inc to join AAP. Another decision that may raise eyebrows is the choice of Shoaib Iqbal, who has been fielded from Matia Mahal instead of sitting MLA Asim Ahmed Khan.

Both Iqbal and Mishra had just recently joined the Aam Aadmi Party.Sitting MLAs have also been dropped in Timarpur, Kondli, Badarpur and Hari Nagar, while changes were also made in Chandni Chowk, Karawal Nagar, Bijwasan, Rajouri Garden and Gandhi Nagar.
The Delhi assembly elections are scheduled for February 8, and the votes will be counted three days later. The Election Commission has already enforced the model code of conduct for the polls, which will see the ruling AAP facing off against the Congress and a resurgent BJP.
“As many as 46 sitting MLAs have been given tickets, 15 sitting MLAs have been replaced… While six women were given tickets by AAP last time, we have now given tickets to eight.
Although the Congress has finalised 14 candidates for the assembly elections, sources in the party said the names will be announced only after AAP and BJP have made their respective declarations. The BJP is expected to come out with its list later this week.

According to the final electoral roll published, over 1.46 crore residents are eligible to vote in the elections. There are a total of 1,46,92,136 people — 80,55,686 men, 66,35,635 women and 815 belonging to the third gender — in the final voters’ list.

AAP had made a clean sweep of the 2015 assembly elections, bagging 67 seats to leave the BJP with just three. The Congress, which had ruled the national capital from 1998 to 2013, drew a blank.

Here is the full list of candidates released by AAP: