The four Aam Aadmi Party candidates whose names have been announced for Lok Sabha seats in the Capital are about to start their election campaign.
Journalist-turned-AAP leader Ashutosh, who would be contesting from Chandni Chowk that is currently being represented by two-time Member of Parliament and Union Minister Kapil Sibal, started his campaign immediately after his name figured in the first list of the AAP candidates two weeks ago. He had joined the AAP in January after quitting as Managing Editor of a Hindi news channel.
Since the last two weeks, Ashutosh has been meeting local volunteers and has covered a large part of the constituency through street corner public meetings. The challenge for him lies in winning over the area in which AAP got just four of the 10 seats in the last Assembly elections.
AAP announced Prof. Anand Kumar, a well known academician, as its candidate from North East Delhi. The area which has a sizeable population of migrants from Bihar and eastern U.P. as also Muslims, poses a significant challenge for the AAP as it had won just three out of the 10 Assembly seats. The party had bagged two seats by a narrow margin, while the Congress had bagged two and BJP five.
Prof. Kumar, who was involved with the Jayaprakash Narayan movement, was active in North East and South West Delhi during the Delhi Assembly elections and had successfully campaigned for Harish Khanna – secretary of the Delhi University Teachers Association – in the Timarpur Assembly seat.
Rajmohan Gandhi, who will be contesting from East Delhi, which twice returned Sandeep Dikshit to the Lok Sabha, is in a comfortable position as the party had won seven out of the 10 Assembly segments in this constituency.
AAP has fielded Mahender Singh from North West Delhi, which is represented by Congress Union Minister Krishna Tirath. Associated with the party as a volunteer since the Jan Lokpal movement in 2011, Mr. Singh is looking forward to engage with the voters in his area with the achievements of his party during its brief stint in the Delhi Government.
