The Aam Admi Party on Tuesday announced its candidates for four Lok Sabha seats in Delhi and one from Haryana’s Kurukshetra constituency.
AAP has fielded Kuldeep Kumar from the East Delhi constituency, whereas former Delhi Minister and senior AAP leader Somnath Bharti will contest from the New Delhi Lok Sabha seat.
The party has fielded Sahiram Pahalwan from the South Delhi seat, and Mahabal Mishra is set to contest from West Delhi.
In Haryana, AAP has decided to field Sushil Gupta will contest from Kurukshetra. The Aam Adami Party is contesting the general elections in alliance with Congress in the national capital. Delhi has seven Lok Sabha seats. Out of these, the Aam Adami Party is contesting on four, while Congress will fight on three as per the seat-sharing pact that was announced last week.
Congress will contest from Chandni Chowk, North East, and North West Delhi. However, the grand old party has yet to release the names of candidates who will contest these seats.
Although speculation is there that Congress might name Alka Lamba from one of these seats to contest against the BJP.
In the 2019 election, the BJP won all 7 of them. However, Congress emerged as runner-up and got a 22℅ vote share while the Aam Adami party bags third position. But the situation is different now. Both Congress and AAP are in an alliance where AAP will contest on 4 seats and Congress will contest on 3 seats.
Addressing a press conference, AAP leader Gopal Rai said that his party has taken a historic decision by fielding a Schedule Caste candidate from the East Delhi constituency, which is a general seat.
“In East Delhi, we have taken a historic decision. Kuldeep Kumar comes from a Scheduled Caste category, and this would be the first time in Delhi that a reserve category candidate will be fighting from a general seat,” Rai said.
Gopal Rai further stated that the names of the candidates have been announced after taking into account all the calculations required to ensure victory in the seats.
“From Bharuch and Bhavnagar, our candidates have been announced. The purpose of fielding these candidates is to ensure victory in whatever seats AAP will fight. So all calculations have been kept in mind,” he said.
AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Atishi also hailed the party’s decision to field Kuldeep Kumar from East Delhi.
“It is only the AAP that is trying to end caste-based politics in the country. We don’t look at which seat is for Brahmans, or Gujjars. We have ended such calculations. We just look at those who want to serve the public in an honest manner,” Atishi said.