New Delhi: Days after putting an end to all the speculations of any alliance with Congress in the national capital, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday announced its candidates for Delhi in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections which are due by May.
The party will field Atishi from East Delhi, Raghav Chaddha from South Delhi, Pankaj Gupta from Chandni Chowk, Dilip Pandey from North East Delhi, Guggan Singh from North West Delhi and Brijesh Goyal from the New Delhi Lok Sabha seat.
The six candidates were earlier appointed as in-charge of the respective Lok Sabha seats.
The candidate for the seventh and the final seat, West Delhi, is still being discussed and will be announced later, senior party leader Gopal Rai said at a press conference.
The BJP had won all the seven Delhi seats in the 2014 elections. Since then, the AAP has, however, made its presence felt with impressive wins in assembly polls. “We won 66 out of 77 seats in the assembly elections. We will try to repeat the feat in the Lok Sabha elections,” Mr Rai said.
On why AAP did not tie up with the Congress to take on the BJP and PM Narendra Modi, Mr Rai pinned the blame squarely on the Congress and its chief Rahul Gandhi. “Sheila Dikshit has said a straight no to alliance. Rahul Gandhi also said not possible... Aam Aadmi Party wanted the alliance, but the Congress is not ready” Mr Rai said.
At a public meeting last week, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had said he was “tired” of trying to persuade the Congress to agree to an alliance with AAP. A day later, Ms Dikshit retorted: “When did AAP ever come to us? If Arvind wants an alliance, he should directly speak to me.”
