AAP out with list of 109 for civic polls

New Delhi: Ahead of its first full-fledged civil polls in Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party on Friday released a list of 109 candidates, which includes 49 women. Women and youth have bagged the most number of tickets, the party said.

Three women candidates have been fielded from unreserved seats, the AAP said. Forty-six of the seats, for which candidates were announced on Friday, are reserved for women. Women get 50 per cent quota in local bodies.

According to the AAP, it has given tickets to 64 youth candidates in the first list. The candidates have been shortlisted after a month-long selection process, party’s Delhi convenor Dilip Pandey said. The party’s highest decision-making body, the Political Affairs Committee, gave approval to all the 109 names put for their consideration.

Among the prominent ones to find their names in the list is Ankush Narang, Delhi youth wing president of AAP. He will contest from West Patel Nagar. The three MCDs with 272 wards are expected to go to polls in April.

“Meetings with the party volunteers are being organised to finalise names of the candidates. The names are being shortlisted after vetting by the party’s screening committee,” Mr Pandey said.

The AAP has received over 10,000 applications from aspirants eyeing the 272 seats. Of these, 3,522 are from North MCD, 3,673 from South and 2,902 from East MCD.

The party plans to take on the BJP and Congress by focusing on alleged financial irregularities in the civic bodies. Corruption in civic bodies will be one of the major issues in the April civic polls, he said.

Delhi is governed by multiple agencies and civic bodies are a crucial cog in the wheel of day-to-day governance.

AAP had made a debut in the last year’s municipal bypolls. In the neck-to-neck fight in 13 wards, AAP and Congress won five seats each, leaving only three for BJP, which has been in a majority in the three municipal corporations for a decade now.

Yogendar Yadav-led Swaraj India, which will be contesting its first-ever electoral battle in Delhi, has announced 25 candidates in its first list released earlier this week. BJP and Congress are yet to announce the lists of selected candidates. Mr Pandey said work for selecting candidates for the remaining seats is on.