In a major drama that has unfolded weeks before Delhi Assembly elections a sitting Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Delhi Cantonment, Surender Singh, will now contest from same seat on NCP ticket. He had earlier quit the party after being denied party ticket for the upcoming Delhi Assembly election.
The National Congress Party today released names of seven candidates for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections. AAP’s sitting MLA from Delhi Cantt – Commando Surender Singh (who has resigned from AAP) has been fielded from the constituency by the party.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) releases names of seven candidates for #DelhiElections2020 . AAP’s sitting MLA from Delhi Cantt – Commando Surender Singh (who has resigned from AAP) has been fielded from the constituency by the party. pic.twitter.com/LbDoSvW9h1
— ANI (@ANI) January 21, 2020
Sharing his resignation letter on Twitter Tuesday, Singh said, “Today, I’m sad and I’m giving my resignation letter from the Aam Aadmi Party.” Talking about his decision to quit AAP, he said he was doing it with a heavy heart. AAP has fielded Virender Singh Kadyan from the seat.
आज मैं दुखी होकर आम आदमी पार्टी से त्यागपत्र दे रहा हूँ @ArvindKejriwal @AAPDelhi @News18India @ANI pic.twitter.com/cZZ6igeVFJ
— Commando Surender Singh MLA (@AAPkaSurender) January 21, 2020
Later, speaking to IANS, the Delhi Cantonment MLA informed that he will be contesting the February 8 election as an NCP candidate.
The Aam Aadmi Party has suffered back to back setbacks in the last two days. Prior to this, two of its MLAs quit the party after they were denied ticket for the 8 February Delhi Assembly election. While Dwarka MLA Adarsh Shastri joined the Congress on Saturday, Hari Nagar MLA Jagdeep Singh said he was in talks with the Shiromani Akali Dal, an ally of the BJP.
Shastri, who was among the 15 members of the outgoing Assembly not fielded by the AAP this time, alleged that the party was “selling” tickets and accused Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of acting in an autocratic manner.
Shastri alleged that the AAP pretended to be an honest party and “made bus tickets free for women but are charging Rs 10 crore for an Assembly seat ticket”.
Countering Shastri’s allegations, another AAP leader said that when tickets are denied, people make such claims. “Does that mean when he previously contested from the AAP, he bought the ticket? The ticket distribution was strictly made on the basis of the performance of the MLAs which was closely scrutinised. All those MLAs whose performance was found to be not up to the mark were dropped,” he said.
Meanwhile, the party chief Arvind Kejriwal, who missed filing his nominations yesterday due to delay caused by his roadshow, filed his nominations today after a prolonged wait at the office of the Returning Officer (RO) at the Jamnagar House.
Kejriwal is being challenged in the New Delhi seat by BJP’s Sunil Yadav and Congress Romesh Sabharwal.
The national capital Delhi will go to polls in a single-phase on February 8 and the counting of votes will take place on February 11. The last day of filing nominations for the candidates is January 21 and the last day to withdraw nominations is January 24.
