Noted Malayalam writer Sara Joseph, JNU professor Anand Kumar and artiste Savita Bhatti, wife of late satirist Jaspal Bhatti, figure in the third list of candidates declared by the Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday for 20 Lok Sabha seats. With this, the party has announced 70 candidates for the 330-odd seats it intends to contest.
The party declared candidates for the lone Chandigarh seat, two each from Delhi and Kerala, seven each from Madhya Pradesh and Odisha and one from Bihar. Besides professionals and activists, the third list includes several party workers.
Ms. Bhatti has been named from Chandigarh, which has former Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal as the sitting MP, while Professor Kumar will contest from Delhi Northeast, a seat currently held by former Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Jai Prakash Agarwal. Another candidate activist Mahender Singh has been fielded from Delhi North-West, which has Union Minister Krishna Tirath as the sitting MP.
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The party is yet to declare its candidates for South Delhi and New Delhi.
In Kerala, the party has put up Ms. Joseph from Thrissur. Joint Parliamentary Committee chairman P.C. Chacko is the sitting MP from there. Former IPS officer, who had a stint with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Ajit Joy, has been fielded from Thiruvannanthapuram, a seat currently held by Union Minister Shashi Tharoor.
Rachna Dheengra, who has been campaigning for Bhopal gas victims, is the candidate from Bhopal which has BJP’s Kailash Joshi as the sitting MP, while an IIM graduate Anil Trivedi will contest from Indore which has been the stronghold of Sumitra Mahajan (BJP). Maya Vishwakarma, who set up AAP chapter in California before returning to India will be the candidate from Hoshangabad.
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Other candidates from MP include a teacher Rajesh Sareram (Betul-ST), AAP workers Pankaj Singh (Sidhi), Atul Mishra (Sagar). Shailendra Singh Kushwaha, who runs an NGO, has been fielded from Guna, a seat currently represented by Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.
AAP’s State secretary in Odisha, Bismaya Mahapatra, will contest from Bhubaneswar, academician Dhanada Kanta Mishra from Berhampur, human rights activist Bikash Das from Cuttack, RTI activist Jimuta Prasad Mishra from Dhenkanal, social activist Mamata Kundu from Balasore, currently held by Union Minister Srikant Jena and national awardee in social service Nirada Barana Khuntia from Puri. A party's founding member of Odhisha unit, Satya Mahar has been fielded from Kalahandi from where Bhakta Charan Das is the sitting Congress MP.
In Bihar, a medical doctor from the U.S. Prabhat Ranjan Das will contest from Darbhanga, a seat held currently by Kirti Azad of the BJP.