AAP unveils candidate list for LS polls

To fight in 180 seats; Medha Patkar, Meera Sanyal, Yogendra Yadav, Phoolka among those nominated

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced its first list of candidates for the coming Lok Sabha elections on Sunday, after its political affairs committee met at chief Arvind Kejriwal's house.

The party would be fielding candidates against top leaders of various political parties. It would be contesting the polls from at least 180 seats, a source told Business Standard.

The first list was primarily central to Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, from where AAP announced seven and six candidates, respectively.

In Uttar Pradesh, AAP leader Kumar Vishwas will challenge Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi in Amethi. Baba Hardev Singh, former Uttar Pradesh chief of the Rashtriya Lok Dal, would fight against Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav in Mainpuri. Former journalist Mukul Tripathy would take on external affairs minister Salman Khurshid in Farrukhabad.

In Maharashtra, Meera Sanyal, former chief executive officer at the India arm of Royal Bank of Scotland, who left her job to join the AAP, will contest from Mumbai South. It is represented by Milind Deora of the Congress, presently Union minister of state for information technology and ports; he had won it in 2004, too.

AAP leader Mayank Gandhi will take on the Congress’ Gurudas Kamat, expected to be renominated for Mumbai Northwest. Kamat, recently included in his party's central election committee, launched his re-election campaign last week. Activist Medha Patkar will challenge the Nationalist Congress Party’s Sanjay Patil in Mumbai Northeast.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has shortlisted the names of Subramanian Swamy, Kirit Somaiya and the late Pramod Mahajan's daughter, Poonam, for the seat.

In Nashik, in north Maharashtra, the AAP has nominated former state irrigation engineer Vijay Pandhare, who had been vocal on the multi-crore irrigation scam. Nashik is currently represented by the NCP’s Sameer Bhujbal but the NCP is expected to announce the nomination of party leader and state public works minister Chhagan Bhujbal from there.

In Vidarbha, Anjali Damania, one of the whistle-blowers in the irrigation scam, would make an entry into electoral politics from the Nagpur constituency. She is expected to take on the BJP's former national president, Nitin Gadkari, whose name has been finalised by the party’s core poll committee. The seat is currently with the Congress’ Vilas Muttemwar, who anxiously awaits renomination. Damania's has made repeated announcements regarding Gadkari's involvement in various alleged scams. Nagpur is also headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, expected to work hard for the victory of its swayamsevak, Gadkari.

The AAP is to soon announce candidates in the remaining 44 of the total of 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. It has appealed to voters to defeat the established parties and give them a chance. AAP's Maharashtra unit secretary and spokesperson, Preeti Sharma Menon, told Business Standard: “We have to fight corruption and dynastic politics. We will do it with the strength of ordinary people who have never been in politics.”

Sunday’s list also had candidates who would fight against big names in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi. In Punjab, senior Supreme Court advocate and veteran lawyer for the survivors of the 1984 Delhi anti-Sikh riots, H S Phoolka, would contest against Union information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari in Ludhiana. In Haryana, AAP leader and member of its national executive committee, Yogendra Yadav, would go to the  polls from Gurgaon. In Delhi, former senior journalist Ashutosh would contest against Union cabinet minister Kapil Sibal from Chandni Chowk.

In Sunday’s meeting, the party was still deciding whether it wanted Kejriwal to contest the Lok Sabha polls or look after the Delhi assembly elections in case of a re-poll. On Friday, Kejriwal and his ministry had given their resignation after being unable to get the numbers to be able to introduce a Bill in the legislative assembly for establihsing a ‘Jan Lok Pal’, a citizens’ ombudsman. Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung recommended imposition of President's Rule in the capital and this was accepted by the central government.

Member of Parliament	Party	State	Constituency	Win Margin	%Votes won over total votes cast in that constituency	AAP Candidate
Rahul Gandhi	Congress	UP	Amethi	3,70,198	71.78	Kumar Vishwas
Kapil Sibal	Congress	Delhi	Chandni Chowk	2,00,710	59.67	Ashutosh
Mulayam Singh Yadav	SP	UP	Mainpuri	1,73,069	56.44	Baba Hardev
Mahabal Mishra	Congress	Delhi	West Delhi	1,29,033	54.32	Jarnail Singh
Manish Tewari	Congress	Punjab	Ludhiana	1,13,706	53.08	Harvinder Singh Phoolka
Milind Murli Deora	Congress	Maharashtra	Mumbai South	1,12,682	42.46	Meera Sanyal
Sanjay Bhoi	Congress	Odisha	Bargarh	98,444	43.21	Lingaraj
Jagdish Singh Rana	BSP	UP	Saharanpur	84,873	43.21	Yogesh Dahiya
Inderjit Singh	Congress	Haryana	Gurgaon	84,864	36.83	Yogendra Yadav
Ajit Singh	RLD	UP	Baghpat	62,987	38.88	Soumendra Dhaka
Mohammed Azharuddin	Congress	UP	Moradabad	49,107	39.59	Khalid Parvalz
Arun Subhashchandra Yadav	Congress	MP	Khandwa	49,081	48.53	Alok Aggarwal
Dr. Baliram	Congress	UP	Lalganj	39,948	31.59	Jiyalal Ram
Ad. Kamat Gurudas Vasant	Congress	Maharashtra	Mumbai North West	38,387	35.91	Mayank Gandhi
Salman Khurshid	Congress	UP	Farukkhabad	27,199	27.72	Mukul Tripathi
Suresh Kalmadi	Congress	Maharashtra	Pune	25,747	38.11	Subash Ware
Sameer Bhujbal	NCP	Maharashtra	Nashik	22,032	36.34	Vijay Baliram Padhare
Sanjay Dina Patil	NCP	Maharashtra	Mumbai North East	2,933	31.17	Medha Patkar
Takam Sanjoy	Congress	Arunachal Pradesh	Arunachal West	1,314	49.16	Habung Payeng
Nitin Gadkari*	BJP	Maharashtra	Nagpur	-	-	Anjali Damania

* - Not a Member of Parliament but likely to contest from Nagpur constituency

Source: AAP, Election Commission of India