Swaraj India on Wednesday announced the first list of 25 candidates for the upcoming municipal corporation elections in Delhi.
The polls are likely to be scheduled around April. Of the 25 candidates, 11 are women. Of the 11 women, two will fight on unreserved seats.
Varied and inclusive
“We had called for anyone who wants to work for the benefit of the people. Their applications went through a three-tier screening to ensure their genuineness. The profiles of all our candidates are varied and inclusive,” said party general-secretary Ajit Jha.
The average age of all the candidates is 38 years, while 16 of them were associated with the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement.
Some of the names in the first list include Alok Mohan, a dentist and a former member of the AAP and IAC, from Kirari; Shalu Sharma, a former member of the BJP, representing the party from Sangam Vihar; and Satyendra Rana, a sportsperson and a former member of the Congress from Bijwasan.
In this list, Swaraj India announced the names of candidates for 10 of 104 seats in the north corporation, candidates for 12 of 104 seats in the south corporation and candidates for three of 64 seats in the east corporation.
To keep the process of nominations democratic and transparent, the party had decided to call for applications through the Swaraj Abhiyan website. Sawraj Abhiyan is the parent body of Swaraj India. A screening committee to verify the applicants was set up. The final decision was taken by an independent integrity committee, headed by RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj.
Second list
Mr. Jha said the second list of candidates will be announced in the coming week. In 2015, Yogendra Yadav and lawyer Prashant Bhushan broke away from the AAP. In 2016, they launched a new political party named Swaraj India. They declared that they would fight the 2017 municipal elections in Delhi.
