The Aam Aadmi Party on Monday released the second list of 20 candidates for the upcoming Delhi assembly elections but dropped a bombshell as 13 sitting Delhi MLAs, replaced them with fresh faces, and shifted 3 others to other seats.
The Aam Aadmi Party dropped 13 sitting MLAs in the second list and they include Sharad Chauhan, Dilip Pandey, Pawan Sharma, Dharampal Lakra, Parlad Singh Sawhney, Girish Soni, Rajesh Rishi, Bhupinder Singh Joon, Bhavna Gaur, Prakash Jarwal, Rohit Kumar Mehraulia, SK Bagga and Haji Yunus.
The AAP shifted Manish Sisodia from Patparganj to Jangpura, Rakhi Bidlan from Mangolpuri to Madipur and Praveen Kumar from Jangpura to Janakpuri.
This time, the party gave tickets to SK Bagga’s son Vikas Bagga in Krishna Nagar and Parlad Singh Sawhney’s son Punardeep Singh Sawhney (Saby) in Chandni Chowk. The party also announced Jitender Singh Shunty as its candidate from Shahdara after sitting MLA and Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel retired from active politics.
The party announced Parvesh Ratan as its candidate from Patel Nagar after sitting MLA and former Delhi Cabinet minister Raaj Kumar Anand left the AAP and joined the BJP.
Moreover, the AAP announced candidates from two sitting BJP seats: Gandhi Nagar and Rohini. BJP’s Anil Kumar Bajpai won the Gandhi Nagar seat in 2020 by defeating AAP’s Naveen Choudhary while Vijender Gupta retained the Rohini Assembly constituency by defeating AAP’s Rajesh Nama ‘Bansiwala’.
The AAP has retained Naveen Choudhary from Gandhi Nagar but announced the candidature of Pradeep Mittal from Rohini.
Last month, the AAP had released the first list of 11 candidates in November. And the party said the process of finalising the candidates for the 2025 assembly polls in Delhi is still underway.
It should be noted that in 2020 assembly polls, the Aam Aadmi Party dropped 15 incumbent MLAs from its list of 70 candidates while 24 new faces were fielded. These included now-Chief Minister Atishi, the party’s present Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha, and also Dilip Pandey.
