Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party yesterday released its full list of candidates for the February 8 elections to the 70-member assembly.Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will contest again from New Delhi and his deputy Manish Sisodia from Patparganj.
While 46 of the sitting legislators will re-contest the elections, 15 have been replaced. As nine seats were vacant, the AAP has also named new candidates.
The list also comprises eight women.
Among the new faces in the list are former Congress leaders Shoaib Iqbal (Matia Mahal) and Prahlad Singh Sawhney (Chandni Chowk) and the party’s Lok Sabha candidates Dilip Pandey (Timarpur), Atishi (Kalkaji) and Raghav Chadha (Rajinder Nagar).
The AAP’s manifesto, likely to be released by the weekend will focus on water, pollution and traffic management.
The party, which claims to have fulfilled all the promises made in the 70-point manifesto of 2015, has set up a three-member committee, comprising Atishi as the chairperson and Ajoy Kumar and Jasmine Shah as members.
According to a party leader, the manifesto will focus on the issues related to the common man.
“To tell you in one line, the manifesto will list the works we are planning to do in the next five years,” the party leader said.
The manifesto drafting committee has compiled the suggestions gathered at town hall meetings, organised by Arvind Kejriwal, door-to-door campaigns and public interactions.
Among the top suggestions, the leader said, was a demand for improvement in the city’s cleanliness, which is otherwise the municipal corporation’s job. “The BJP has been heading the municipal corporations for the last 15 years. But people are unhappy with the waste management and are demanding that we take some steps.”
Similarly, the party has also received several requests for better traffic management. “Although the two are not under the city government, we are exploring what can be done about them,” the AAP leader said.
In the 2015 polls, the AAP won 67 70 seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party three. The AAP has disqualified five of its MLAs since August 2019.
While Anil Kumar Bajpai, Devinder Sehrawat and Kapil Mishra were disqualified for their association with the BJP, Sandeep Kumar was disqualified for having connections with Bahujan Samaj Party and Alka Lamba was disqualified after she joined the Congress.
Related Story