Aam Admi Party, a spent force that has been begging Congress, a party with zero MLAs in Delhi for an alliance has been exposed for another dirty trick that plays on the caste and religious sentiments of the voters. Atishi, who had earlier changed her name to ‘Singh’ is back to being ‘Atishi Marlena’ in her 2019 election affidavit.
In August 2018, AAP leader Atishi Marlena had dropped her last name ‘Marlena’ from her name. It was alleged that the name was dropped because it was ‘Christian sounding’, which may not be suitable in her campaign during Lok Sabha elections. The party had denied the allegations, saying that her real surname was Singh and the Marlena surname was given by her parents, which is a combination of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin.
Subsequent to this change, the party poster carried only her first name Atishi, and she had changed her Twitter handle from @Atishimarlena to @AtishiAAP. The name was also changed in all party records and campaigning materials and on the AAP website.
At that time, Atishi had said, “My actual surname is Singh and I come from a Punjabi Rajput family. Had I wanted to appease voters then I would have gladly used my real surname.”
Interestingly, posters had also come up which identified Atishi as ‘Atishi Singh’.
In fact, as late as 8th November 2018, Atishi was giving interviews as ‘Atishi Singh’.
However, in an interesting turn of events, Atishi seems to have decided to go back to being ‘Atishi Marlena’ from her temporary name ‘Atishi Singh’.
In the election affidavit filed by Atishi, she has listed herself as ‘Atishi Marlena’ and not ‘Atishi Singh’.
Atishi Marlena, who was ‘Atishi Singh’ up until she filed her election affidavit, is fighting from East Delhi constituency on an AAP ticket.
Interestingly, the official website of Aam Aadmi Party lists Atishi Marlena as only ‘Atishi’ without mentioning her second name at all thereby leaving Atishi to decide when she wishes to be known as Atishi Singh and when she wishes to be known as Atishi Marlena.
Aam Aadmi Party has often been seen playing the caste card. Earlier, Arvind Kejriwal had spoken of the ‘Agarwal community’ and how they were upset with PM Modi’s GST. During the Punjab elections, one recalls how Satyendra Jain had suddenly become ‘Satinder’ just to appeal to Punjabi voters.
