The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) named its candidates for six of the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi on Saturday, potentially dealing a blow to hopes of a pre-poll alliance with the Congress.
Candidates were named for all but the West Delhi constituency, with Atishi, who uses only one name, being assigned to East Delhi, Dilip Pandey to Northeast Delhi, Gugan Singh to Nortwest Delhi, Pankaj Gupta to Chandni Chowk and Brijesh Goyal to the prestigious New Delhi Lok Sabha seat.
The party said a decision on the West Delhi seat will be taken later as the top leadership was still "undecided on 2-3 names", its leaders said.
A top AAP leader did not rule out the possibility of reopening talks for an alliance in Delhi with the congress, with the condition that it makes "a serious attempt" and includes "emissaries authorised by the top leadership" in the discussions.
He said Congress leaders who had been in touch with AAP never gave an impression that they had Congress president Rahul Gaandhi's mandate and signals received from the Delhi Congress leaders through former CM Sheila Dikshit were not in favour of an alliance.
"The situation forced the AAP leadership to go ahead and announce the names of candidates for six seats," the leader claimed.
The AAP leader also linked the possibility of an understanding in Delhi with some sort of an arrangement in Punjab, Haryana, Goa and Chandigarh. AAP, which fought alone in the 2014 national elections, failed to win a single seat from Delhi; the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept all seven seats. The following year, the AAP swept to power in the state assembly where it now has 67 out of 70 seats.
The Congress does not have a single MLA in Delhi. Cogress's Delhi chief Dikshit continued discussion on Saturday with senior leaders on the possibility of alliance.
AAP's national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the party's seventh candidate will be announced soon. "Congratulations and best wishes. Seventh candidate will be announced soon. Delhiites will have full statehood this time," he tweeted.
 Seats in Delhi){kind=link}
0 comments:
Post a Comment