In an early bird announcement, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has named 11 candidates for the Delhi Assembly elections, likely to be held early next year. While Brahma Singh Tanwar will contest from Chhatarpur, Anil Jha will be AAP candidate from Kiradi. Deepak Singhla will contest in Vishwas Nagar and Sarita Singh in Rohtas Nagar. BB Tyagi has been named AAP candidate in Laxmi Nagar and Ram Singh Netaji in Badarpur.
Zubair Chaudhary will be AAP’s candidate from Seelampur and Veer Singh Dhingan will contest in Seemapuri. Gaurav Sharma will contest in Ghonda and Manoj Tyagi has been picked as candidate in Karawal Nagar. Somesh Shaukeen will be AAP’s candidate from Matiala.
The 11-candidate list has six turncoats — three from the BJP and as many from the Congress.
Both Mr Tanwar and Mr Jha are former BJP legislators and switched to the AAP this year. BB Tyagi, too, is a former BJP leader and a two-time councillor of Municipal Corporation of Delhi. Deepak Singhla is a senior party leader who lost to the BJP’s Om Prakash Sharma in Vishwas Nagar last time. Sarita Singh heads the AAP’s student wing, Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti, and a former MLA from Rohtas Nagar.
Ram Singh Netaji is a two-time MLA from Badarpur and Zubair Chaudhary is the son of five-time Seelampur MLA and Congress leader Mateen Ahmed. Veer Singh Dhingan, earlier with the Congress, is a three-time MLA from Seemapuri. Gaurav Sharma is AAP’s national joint secretary for organisation building and Manoj Tyagi is a former councillor. Somesh Shaukeen, too, is a former Congress MLA who switched to the AAP this year.
The AAP has denied a poll pass to three sitting MLAs and subsequent lists will show if they are accommodated in other seats. They are Kirari MLA Rituraj Jha, Seelampur legislator Abdul Rahman and Matiala MLA Gulab Singh Yadav.