NEW DELHI: In an unusual move, Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday announced its first list of 11 candidates for the Delhi assembly elections, which are likely to be held in Feb next year. The capital is due to elect 70 members of the assembly and AAP has been the first off the block. The party's Delhi, convener Gopal Rai, said the names had been declared early because eight of the 11 constituencies are not held by the party.
Six are currently held by BJP. Party sources said they wanted to give the candidates a head start since on most of these seats, AAP had either lost or its candidates had switched sides. This move is also intended to retain those who had joined recently because they could be lured back to their former parties before the elections.
Of the 11, six candidates had switched to AAP from BJP or Congress. The list includes Brahm Singh Tanwar, Anil Jha and BB Tyagi, who left BJP, and Chaudhry Zubair Ahmad, Veer Dhingan and Sumesh Shokeen, who quit Congress. "The party has also given a message to members of other parties who are aspiring for tickets and have a good chance of winning," they said.
The names were announced after a meeting of AAP's political affairs committee, headed by national convenor Arvind Kejriwal. Rai said the tickets were given based strictly on performance, surveys and public opinion, as promised by Kejriwal. The party has fielded Brahm Singh Tanwar from Chhatarpur, Anil Jha from Kirari and BB Tyagi from Laxmi Nagar.
Choudhary Zubair Ahmed has been fi.