New Delhi:
Gearing up for its electoral debut in the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today announced the names of 44 shortlisted candidates for 12 constituencies.
"The final 12 would be selected after recommendations of grassroot level workers and selection committee after proper consultation and debate among them," AAP Convener Arvind Kejriwal told reporters in New Delhi.
He said the candidates were selected by 'candidate screening committee' co-chaired by Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh. Prominent among the shortlisted candidates are media personality and AAP member Shazia Ilmi from R K Puram and Sisodia himself from Patparganj.
Asked about the funds collected by the party to contest the elections, he said "we have received around Rs 2 crore in last two months through internet banking and anybody can visit our site to see the list of donors.
"We don't accept any amount from those who want to remain anonymous," he said.
A proper selection procedure like screening, interviewing and verifying about their criminal antecedents and popularity among locals was followed for the aspirants.
"Our focus was to ensure that candidates do not have any criminal case against them, they are honest, have a clean image in the locality and no two persons belong to the same family. Similarly, we have tried to discourage nepotism and dynastic politics," Kejriwal said.
In last assembly election, Congress and BJP had fielded 19 candidates with criminal cases like kidnapping and murder while BSP had 15 such candidates, he said, adding "our attempt is to bring people with clean image and prevent persons with criminal antecedents from entering politics".
"We had received a total of 106 applications from advocates, journalists, engineers, former defence officials, resident welfare associations' office bearers, social activists and supporters from other political parties like Congress and BJP," Kejriwal said.
He claimed one of the candidates was associated with Congress for 25 years while another was active with BJP at divisional level.
AAP has shortlisted five candidates each for Greater Kailash assembly constituency and Trilokpuri; four each for Kondli, Najafgarh, Patparganj and Seemapuri while three each for Bijwasan, Malviya Nagar, Matia Mahal, Matiala, Rama Krishna Puram and Sadar Bazar.
Now no applications will be entertained for the seats for which candidates have been shortlisted but we would be accepting applications for other constituencies, he added.
Elaborating on the next step, he said "the details of the shortlisted candidates would be put up on the web site for 15 days and we would invite suggestions and information - positive or negative - them, then the final selection will take place."
The AAP Convener said that they expect to bring the first list of final candidates by June 15.
Kejriwal also accused Congress and BJP of misusing public money on advertisements highlighting "achievements" of their governments and demanded that the political parties return the funds.
"I congratulate Delhi Lokayukta for indicting Delhi Chief Minister for allegedly misusing the public money for advertisements. Even the Congress and BJP should return the money used on their advertisement campaigns - Bharat Nirman and India Shining," Kejriwal said.
He alleged that political parties have been misusing state funds rampantly and it needed to be checked.
"The final 12 would be selected after recommendations of grassroot level workers and selection committee after proper consultation and debate among them," AAP Convener Arvind Kejriwal told reporters in New Delhi.
He said the candidates were selected by 'candidate screening committee' co-chaired by Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh. Prominent among the shortlisted candidates are media personality and AAP member Shazia Ilmi from R K Puram and Sisodia himself from Patparganj.
Asked about the funds collected by the party to contest the elections, he said "we have received around Rs 2 crore in last two months through internet banking and anybody can visit our site to see the list of donors.
"We don't accept any amount from those who want to remain anonymous," he said.
A proper selection procedure like screening, interviewing and verifying about their criminal antecedents and popularity among locals was followed for the aspirants.
"Our focus was to ensure that candidates do not have any criminal case against them, they are honest, have a clean image in the locality and no two persons belong to the same family. Similarly, we have tried to discourage nepotism and dynastic politics," Kejriwal said.
In last assembly election, Congress and BJP had fielded 19 candidates with criminal cases like kidnapping and murder while BSP had 15 such candidates, he said, adding "our attempt is to bring people with clean image and prevent persons with criminal antecedents from entering politics".
"We had received a total of 106 applications from advocates, journalists, engineers, former defence officials, resident welfare associations' office bearers, social activists and supporters from other political parties like Congress and BJP," Kejriwal said.
He claimed one of the candidates was associated with Congress for 25 years while another was active with BJP at divisional level.
AAP has shortlisted five candidates each for Greater Kailash assembly constituency and Trilokpuri; four each for Kondli, Najafgarh, Patparganj and Seemapuri while three each for Bijwasan, Malviya Nagar, Matia Mahal, Matiala, Rama Krishna Puram and Sadar Bazar.
Now no applications will be entertained for the seats for which candidates have been shortlisted but we would be accepting applications for other constituencies, he added.
Elaborating on the next step, he said "the details of the shortlisted candidates would be put up on the web site for 15 days and we would invite suggestions and information - positive or negative - them, then the final selection will take place."
The AAP Convener said that they expect to bring the first list of final candidates by June 15.
Kejriwal also accused Congress and BJP of misusing public money on advertisements highlighting "achievements" of their governments and demanded that the political parties return the funds.
"I congratulate Delhi Lokayukta for indicting Delhi Chief Minister for allegedly misusing the public money for advertisements. Even the Congress and BJP should return the money used on their advertisement campaigns - Bharat Nirman and India Shining," Kejriwal said.
He alleged that political parties have been misusing state funds rampantly and it needed to be checked.
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