The AAP has convened its Political Affairs Committee meeting on Tuesday to deliberate on the likely candidates the party will field for the next Lok Sabha elections.
For Delhi, Gujarat, Goa, and Haryana, the party and Congress, its INDIA bloc ally, have finalized seat-sharing accords. Taking into account the “special circumstances” in the state, the two parties will, however, run independently in Punjab.
The AAP will run for four of the seven seats in Delhi, namely New Delhi, West Delhi, East Delhi, and South Delhi. The BJP now holds all seven of Delhi’s Lok Sabha seats.
“The Political Affairs Committee will meet tomorrow (Tuesday) to discuss the names of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls,” a source within the party said on Monday.
Three Assamese and two Gujarati candidates, representing the seats of Bharuch and Bhavnagar, have already been announced by the AAP.
According to sources, the party has narrowed down its list of candidates for each seat and has also polled the public to gather firsthand opinions.
A few MLAs in office wish to run for the Lok Sabha as well.
MLAs Sahiram Pahalwan of Tughlaqabad and Kartar Singh Tanwar of Chhatarpur are two of the most likely contenders in South Delhi. The party is considering running Somnath Bharti, an MLA from Malviya Nagar, Shiv Charan Goel, an MLA from Moti Nagar, and Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi in New Delhi.
The AAP may choose to field former MP Mahabal Mishra from West Delhi, which has a sizable Purvanchali support base.
A few years ago, Mishra departed from the Congress. On the Congress ticket, he ran an unsuccessful campaign in the 2019 elections.
Gopal Rai, a minister in Delhi and the convenor of the party’s Delhi chapter, is one of the contenders in East Delhi.
The AAP ran candidates for all seven Delhi Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 election, placing third in two of them and second in the other two.
With the AAP-Congress facing the BJP, the battle lines for the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi have been established.
