Somnath Bharti was the law minister in the Arvind-Kejriwal led AAP government in Delhi.
The Aam Aadmi Party today released its first list of 22 candidates, fielding former ministers Somnath Bharti, Saurabh Bhardwaj, Satyendra Jain and Girish Soni in the Delhi Assembly elections, the dates of which are yet to be announced.
The party, however, has not included the name of its chief Arvind Kejriwal in the first list. It said that it is now screening all the applicants and some names, which have not made it to the first list, will be accommodated.
During the AAP government's tenure in power in Delhi, which lasted less than two months, Mr Bharti served as the law minister in Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's Cabinet. He had been accused of leading a midnight raid in Delhi's Khirki Extension, where Ugandan women were allegedly abused over local complaints of a sex and drug trafficking ring.
Mr Bharti, Mr Soni, Mr Bhardwaj and Mr Jain have been fielded from the same constituencies they had won in the last Assembly elections. Eight sitting legislators also figure in the list.
The AAP has not included any new face in the first list while fielding 11 other candidates who fought last Assembly elections but were defeated by a close margin.
"AAP has formed a probe committee led by party's senior leader Anand Kumar and it will look into it if allegations emerge against any candidate during elections. If allegation is proved, party can even cancel their ticket in the last moment," AAP's PAC member Sanjay Singh told reporters.
Asked why party then fielded Bharti, who is facing serious charges in Malviya Nagar midnight raid, Singh maintained that the former Law Minister was innocent and that he had gone there on request of local people and tried to help them in busting a "prostitution and drug racket".
Among the sitting MLAs, who have again been given tickets, are Mr Bharti from Malviya Nagar, Mr Bhardwaj from Greater Kailash, Satyendra Jain from Shakur Basti, Girish Soni from Madipur, Manoj Kumar from Kondli, Jagdeep from Harinagar, Jarnail Singh from Tilak Nagar, Vishesh Ravi from Karol Bagh, Sanjeev Jha from Burari, Bandana Kumari from Shalimar Bagh, Som Dutt from Sadar Bazar and Commando Surender from Delhi Cantonment.
The 11 candidates, who had unsuccessfully contested the elections in 2013 but were given tickets again are Sandeep (Sultanpuri Majra), Anil Bajpai (Gandhi Nagar), Atul Gupta (Vishwas Nagar), Rajesh Rishi (Janakpuri), Gulab Singh (Matiala), Vijendra Garg (Rajendra Nagar), Kapil Mishra (Karawal Nagar), Jitendra Tomar (Tri Nagar), ND Sharma.