The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) here on Saturday announced names of candidates for six of the seven parliamentary constituencies in the national capital.
“The party has decided to field Pankaj Gupta from Chandni Chowk, Dilip Pandey from North East Delhi, Atishi from East Delhi, Brajesh Goel from New Delhi, Gugan Singh from North West Delhi and Raghav Chadha from South Delhi,” AAP’s Delhi Convenor Gopal Rai said.
The party was yet to take a call on the West Delhi seat, he added.
The six candidates were earlier appointed in-charge for their respective Lok Sabha seats. There was no in-charge for the West Delhi seat.
“A few names has been considered for the West Delhi seat. The party will announce the candidate in the next few days,” Rai said.
Speaking to the media at the party office, Rai said the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ leadership had planned that there should be an alliance between the AAP and the Congress in Delhi.
“This could have helped prevent split in anti-BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) votes. But as per the two official communication we had, the Congress was not interested in the alliance.
“On February 13, when Congress President Rahul Gandhi met AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal during a meeting of Opposition leaders, he rejected the alliance. We were told they are re-thinking. On Friday, state Congress chief Sheila Dikshit said a straight no for the alliance,” Rai said.
Being confident of winning the Lok Sabha polls on its own, Rai told IANS: “We have contested polls on our own earlier and we can do it this time as well. We won 67 of the 70 seats in Assembly elections. We will try to make a similar presence during the Lok Sabha elections,” Rai said.
“Even our party members were not happy with the idea of joining hands with the Congress, but we are thinking about the bigger picture.”
The AAP, born out of an anti-corruption movement against the Congress, came second in all the seven Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 general elections. The BJP won all seats and the Congress came third.
The Congress had joined hands with the AAP during the 49-day government of Kejriwal after 2013 Assembly polls.
IANS