The AAP government in Delhi has been claiming that they will seek votes on the basis of stellar work done in the last 5 years of their rule. However, seeing their current list of candidates, speculations are being made whether the party doesn’t even trust the ‘work’ of its sitting MLAs.
The party had issued the list of candidates on 14 January. 15 sitting MLAs seem to have lost out in the ticket race. However, the party has reportedly fielded 5 such ‘new faces’ who had joined AAP just 24 hours prior.
ND Sharma, the sitting AAP MLA from Badarpur seat has alleged that he was called to deputy CM Sisodia’s residence where he was informed that the party has given the ticket for his constituency to one Ram Singh. Sisodia allegedly told Sharma that Singh wanted the ticket and has paid Rs 21 crores for it. Sharma has further alleged that Sisodia had demanded Rs 10 crores from him for the ticket to his constituency.
Sitting AAP MLA from Badarpur, ND Sharma: Manish Sisodia had called me to his residence saying that Ram Singh (who has been given ticket from Badarpur) wants a ticket from your constituency by paying Rs 20-21 Crore. He demanded Rs 10 cr from me. I left from there after refusing. pic.twitter.com/NkSo6kODmk
— ANI (@ANI) January 15, 2020
One of the ‘new faces’ fielded by AAP is Vinay Mishra who has obtained the Dwarka ticket. He is the son of former Congress MP Mahabal Mishra. The Dwarka seat was won in 2014 by Lal Bahadur Shashtri’s grandson Adarsh Shashtri on an AAP ticket. Shashtri has not been given a ticket this time.
The other new faces apart from Vinay Mishra are Rajkumari Dhillon, Naveen Chaudhry (Deepu), Jai Bhagwan and Ram Singh Netaji (Badarpur).
As per reports, AAP is repeating only 46 MLAs. In the list of candidates shared by AAP, 24 seats are getting ‘new faces’. 15 of these constituencies are those where sitting MLAs have been denied tickets. The MLAs in 5 seats have had their membership cancelled and 4 seats are under BJP.
Important Announcement :
Aam Aadmi Party declares all 70 candidates for the upcoming Delhi election.
We congratulate all the candidates and wish them all the best to establish high levels of trust and integrity within their constituency.#AAPKeCandidates pic.twitter.com/mbby8Z2GCR
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) January 14, 2020
Apart from Badarpur MLA ND Sharma, Seelampur MLA Haji Ishrak and Delhi Cant MLA Commando Surendra have also reportedly voiced objections over the ticket distribution. They have stated that they will meet the CM over the denial of tickets.
