Electoral dilemma for AAP

With few known faces with a
mass appeal, there is a debate within the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on whether to utilise senior leaders for organisational work or make them contest elections in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
"There is a debate going on in the party on whether to ask senior leaders to contest the Lok Sabha polls, or concentrate on party activities" said a source.
"Some of these leaders have been in the anti-corruption movement ever since it started and even during the Delhi assembly elections, so they are a known name now. On the other hand, they are people with good organisational skills as well. This becomes a problem because if the party asks them to contest then they would not be in a position to give 100 per cent to the party," said a source.

The party has leaders, who are popular with a certain mass appeal in some areas while there are some who have execeptionally good organisational skills.
"The fix is we need a face to project as we cannot get good candidates for all the seats. There are leaders like Shazia Ilmi (party's RK Puram candidate who was defeated in assembly election and a member of the National Executive Committee) who has expressed interest in contesting the Lok Sabha polls, but the party wants to use their skills for the organisation.

On the other hand, one cannot have known faces of the party not contesting elections as this will also hurt the party," the source added.

There are leaders like Sanjay Singh, who has been looking after Uttar Pradesh and also known for organisation building and Yogendra Yadav- a major brain behind party's policies on several issues.
While Singh is known to have rejected the idea of contesting elections as he wants to build the organisation especially in Amethi, where he is helping Kumar Vishwas against Rahul Gandhi, leaders like Yadav have also expressed party work as their first priority rather than contest elections.
Interestingly, both the leaders have done extensive party work in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana respectively.
Similarly, in Maharashtra leaders like Anjali Damania, who is known to be one of the faces in the state have preferred to work for the party rather than contest elections.