The Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday announced candidates for six of the seven Lok Sabha constituencies of Delhi for the upcoming elections. The party confirmed it will not partner with the Congress, reported the Hindustan Times.
Atishi will run for Parliament from the East Delhi seat, Gugan Singh from North West Delhi, Raghav Chadha from South Delhi, Dilip Pandey from North East Delhi, Pankaj Gupta from Chandni Chowk, and Brijesh Goyal will stand from the New Delhi seat.
The names were announced by party leader Gopal Rai at a press conference. He said the candidate for West Delhi will be announced soon.
The six candidates were earlier in charge of their respective Lok Sabha seats.
Rai said Congress President Rahul Gandhi had refused a proposal for an alliance during a meeting of Opposition parties in February.
“We wanted an alliance. But the way [Congress Delhi chief] Sheila Dikshit refused it we felt there is no more time to wait as elections are near,” Rai said. He added that the Aam Aadmi Party still feels that “there should be one candidate of the Opposition against the Bharatiya Janata Party, not only in Delhi but in other states also”.
The Congress, meanwhile, said there could be “strategic reasons” behind the Aam Aadmi Party announcing candidates for only six seats, PTI reported.
Aam Aadmi Party chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had last week said his party was preparing to contest the Lok Sabha elections alone as the Congress has ruled out an alliance with it. He had earlier claimed he was “tired of trying to convince the Congress” for an alliance.
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