Battle lines being drawn in Delhi as AAP declares candidates for all seats; 5 nominations filed

Battle lines were being drawn in Delhi for the February 8 assembly election as the AAP on Tuesday declared its candidates for all 70 seats, and the nomination process started with five aspirants filing their papers.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will contest from New Delhi seat for the third time as the AAP seeks to retain power on the plank of development in a triangular contest involving the BJP and the Congress which are expected to announce their candidates later this week.

BJP ally Lok Janshakti Party declared it will contest all the 70 seats and released its first list of 15 candidates.

Poll officials said the notification for the election was issued on Tuesday and nomination process began. The last date for filing nomination is January 21. The scrutiny will happen on January 22 while the last date for withdrawal of candidature is January 24.

One nomination each was filed in Burari and Matiala constituencies, while a candidate filed three nominations in the New Delhi seat, a senior official of the Delhi CEO Office said.

The Aam Aadmi Party, which won 67 out 70 seats in the last assembly polls, has repeated 46 MLAs.

Kejriwal's cabinet colleagues, including his deputy Manish Sisodia, will contest from the seats they represent in the current assembly.

The party has dropped 15 MLAs and given tickets to 24 new faces, including Atishi, Dilip Pandey and Raghav Chadha who unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Atishi will contest from Kalkaji, Raghav Chadha from Rajendir Nagar and Dilip Pandey from Timarpur.

"The existing MLAs will contest elections on 46 seats. There will be new faces in place of 15 existing MLAs and nine vacant seats. There are eight women among them. In 2015, there were six women," Sisodia said. Sisodia said.

Soon after the announcement, Kejriwal tweeted, "Best wishes to all. Don't be complacent. Work v(ery) hard. People have lot of faith in AAP and u (You). God bless."