Aam Aadmi Party issues second list of 44 shortlisted nominees

India, June 8 -- Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal has declared total assets worth Rs. 71 lakh in his application for the party ticket from New Delhi constituency - represented by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in the current assembly.

His assets include a plot of land in Indirapuram worth Rs. 70 lakh and Rs. 1 lakh in bank deposit. He has also declared a flat in Gurgaon worth Rs. 1 crore and Rs. 1 lakh as bank balance in his wife's name.

The party has uploaded Kejriwal's details, including his application form in original, on the party's website to seek public comments - a procedure followed by the party in choosing its candidates.

After the party decided to field Kejriwal against Dikshit, the AAP leader went from door to door in the constituency and got 100 signatures on his application form.

Incidentally, Kejriwal is the only candidate shortlisted for the constituency.

"There were just two other candidates in the fray. One of them withdrew while the other's form was incomplete so we cancelled his candidature," said Manish Sisodia, party spokesperson and member the screening committee.

Continuing its crusade of revolutionary politics, Aam Aadmi Party today issued its second list of 44 candidates for 10 more Delhi Assembly constituencies. A total of 84 candidates had applied for these constituencies, namely Babarpur, Bawana, Chhatarpur, Gokulpur, Krishna Nagar, Laxmi Nagar, Mustafabad, Rajouri Garden, Shalimar Bagh and Vishwas Nagar. The Screening Committee comprising of 7 people went through each and every application and finalized the list after interacting with the applicants personally.

The shortlisted candidates represent people from all walks of life. Musharraf Khan, a daily wage earner, is one of the shortlisted candidates from Rajouri Garden assembly. Similarly, two doctors Dr. Atul Gupta and Dr. Inder Singh are also part of the shortlisted candidates from Vishwas Nagar. Another doctor, Dr. Jai Prakash Lohia who is now into dairy business also figures in the list. Jyoti Bansal, a party worker who has now shifted to Australia, has also been shortlisted from Krishna Nagar Assembly. The Screening Committee interacted with her through Skype, and shortlisted her name.

Party volunteer Gopal Rai has applied from Babarpur Constituency. Vinod Kumar Binny, AAP party worker and councillor from East Delhi’s Kichdipur area has also applied for party ticket from Laxmi Nagar. Vinod Binny has now joined Aam Aadmi Party formally and has also started holding Mohalla Sabhas in his ward.

The screening process adopted by AAP is a stepping stone in increasing transparency in democratic processes where everyone has an equal say on all issues including decisions taken by the party. Cutting across through typical party politics where all decisions are taken by party high command, Aam Aadmi Party wishes to establish a new kind of politics in which decisions are taken by the people.

In last Delhi Vidhan Sabha elections held in 2008, Congress and BJP had fielded 19 candidates each, having criminal background. BSP also gave ticket to 15 tainted people. The screening committee created by Aam Aadmi Party has tried its best to avoid shortlisting people who have any kind of criminal background based on information provided in the candidate forms. Still, to check if these potential candidates have suppressed any information, AAP is uploading their forms on the website.

Aam Aadmi Party has put the profiles of these 44 shortlisted candidates (along with the profiles of candidates from the first shortlist) on its website (delhi.aamaadmiparty.org) and would be soliciting comments on these applications for the next 15 days. People can send in their feedback on these candidates for the next 15 days through the following ways:

Email: delhielection@aamaadmiparty.org

Website: delhi.aamaadmiparty.org)

Address: Election Cell, Aam Aadmi Party, A-119, Kaushambi, Ghaziabad, UP: 201010

Helpline: 09718500606

Earlier, the party had announced its shortlist for 12 constituencies. A lot of feedback is being received on the shortlist. Based on preferential voting and feedback received, the Political Affairs Committee of AAP would decide on the final list of candidates for these Vidhan Sabhas. Apart from this list, party workers in a meeting held on June 2 at Constitution Club had decided that Party Convenor Arvind Kejriwal should contest elections from New Delhi Vidhan Sabha. Adding to this the list of 10 Vidhan Sabhas declared today, a total of 23 Assembly Constituencies have been frozen by the party.

If credible evidence of any wrong doing is received against any of the candidates, their names will be taken off the shortlist. We urge you to participate in this process to ensure that we select the best candidate to represent the AAM Aadmi. This is not the final selection process though, the detailed process is outlined here.

I have never supported any political party wholeheartedly.

I have during my lifetime supported some party or other, based on issues.

However, the AAP is one party I will go all out to support.

Their aims at least in the nascent stage are admirable and with leaders like Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan, Manish Sishodia leading from the front, it should remain the same.

To give a good government, the leaders themselves must be honest.

If these three had any flaws, the Congress Dirty Trick Department led by Digvijay Singh and Manish Tewari would have found them and hounded these people.

It is not that they have not tried.

Arvind Kejriwal had to return the advance he had taken and Prashant Bhushan was made to explain certain plots of land they had acquired.

On the other hand Kiran Bedi dropped out because the DTD of the Congress discovered some anomalies in her travelling expense account.

I would suggest that the entire Delhi population chose only AAP candidates and throw out all the other party candidates in the next election.