AAP names last candidate for LS elections in Delhi
Delhi minister and AAP leader Gopal Rai said the party has waited long enough for an alliance with the Congress.
New Delhi: The AAP on Sunday declared its last candidate in Delhi for the Lok Sabha polls, with a senior leader saying the announcement was made seeing the Congress’s “irresponsible and indecisive” attitude towards an alliance in the national capital.
The AAP announced the name of Balbir Singh Jakhar as its candidate for the West Delhi parliamentary seat. Mr Jakhar has been associated with the AAP since its Jan Lokpal Movement. The other six AAP candidates are Atishi from East Delhi, Guggan Singh from North-West Delhi, Raghav Chadha from South, Dilip Pandey from North-East, Pankaj Gupta from Chandni Chowk and Brijesh Goyal will contest from New Delhi seats.
The AAP’s decision to announce the name of its seventh candidate has assumed political significance as the party has been reportedly in talks with the Congress for stitching together an alliance to contest the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi.
Sources said that both the parties have agreed to follow 3+3+1 formula to contest the Parliamentary elections to take on the Narendra Modi and Amit Shah duo. But the two parties are yet to take a final call on the seats over which they would be fielding their respective candidates.
For one of the Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, both the AAP and the Congress are likely to support the candidature of either former Union minister Yashwant Sinha or his BJP colleague and veteran Bollywood star Shatrughan Sinha, who has reportedly being denied party ticket from the Patna Sahib Lok Sabha seat in Bihar.
The Congress is yet to take a final decision on the alliance as three-time chief minister and the party’s state unit head Sheila Dikshit has been vociferously opposing any such move saying this would harm the party in the long run. Only a section of the leaders within the Congress want an alliance with the AAP as they fear that any split in the votes would help the BJP to sweep all the seven seats in Delhi.
Delhi minister and AAP leader Gopal Rai said the party has waited long enough for an alliance with the Congress.
Seeing the “irresponsible and indecisive” attitude of the grand old party, he said his party has decided to declare the name of its seventh candidate.