Arvind Kejriwal, the President of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Chief Minister of Delhi, on the 2nd of March, announced 6 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, in Delhi.
Delhi will contest a total of 7 Lok Sabha seats, out of which, the AAP announced the 6 finalists. The discussion about who the last candidate will be, is still going on.
The candidates selected for the 6 constituencies in Delhi are Atishi (East Delhi,) Guggan Singh (Northwest Delhi,) Raghav Chadha (South Delhi,) Dilip Pandey (Northeast Delhi,) Pankaj Gupta (Chandni Chowk) and Brijesh Goyal (New Delhi.)
When asked about an alliance with the Indian National Congress (INC,) Arvind Kejriwal said, since the 13th of February, the AAP is trying to approach the INC for an alliance. However, the INC denied the proposal and said no to forming the alliance.
The initiative to form an alliance was initially taken by N. Chandrababu Naidu, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, and Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal.
On the 13th of February, political leaders such as Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee, Chandrababu Naidu, Sharad Pawar, the President of the Nationalist Communist Party (NCP,) and Rahul Gandhi, the President of the INC, met at Sharad Pawar’s residence and discussed a pre poll alliance.
The discussion about the alliance was aimed at forming a front to maintain unity and fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP.)
Gopal Rai, the AAP Convener, said, the INC denied the alliance as the Delhi Pradesh Contest Committee is not in favour of the alliance. He further said, “Moreover, DPCC chief Sheila Dikshit made it clear on Friday that she was not in favor of any alliance. Time was running out and we had to announce names.”
The AAP will now contest the Lok Sabha elections alone in Delhi.
The Lok Sabha elections are scheduled between April and May 2019 and the major parties contesting are the INC and the BJP.
Stay tuned for further updates about the Lok Sabha elections.
