Swaraj India fields startup co-founder from Gurgaon seat

Gurgaon: Just days after announcing its intent to contest all the 90 seats in the upcoming Haryana assembly elections, slated to be held after two months, Yogendra Yadav’s party Swaraj India on Tuesday announced its first list of 10 candidates. Most of these candidates are associated with the Lokpal agitation, Kisan Sangathan or other social justice campaigns.
The newly-formed political party has announced the name of Sheilza Bhatia (45) for the Gurgaon seat and Dipak (34) for Pataudi. Co-founder of a startup, Sheilza was earlier associated with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and works for corporates. The party says she has been working for employment of women in the Mewat region.
“I shifted to Gurgaon around seven years ago from west Delhi and have been working towards women empowerment, livelihood generation and job creation. I have been associated with AAP since the Anna Hazare movement and want to provide an alternative to the voters of Gurgaon. People vote for BJP because there is no alternate,” said Sheilza.
“I am not going to write myself off,” she said, when asked about her chances of winning the seat, especially at a time when many politicians from the opposition parties are scurrying towards BJP.
“People are well aware of what the Khattar government has delivered in the past five years. The issues in the assembly elections are different from Lok Sabha. I will target issues like infrastructure, clean air, security, especially of women,” she said.
Yogendra Yadav, national president of Swaraj India, said unlike other parties, politics is not a business for his party. “Today, when there is a competition to get into BJP, these candidates have shown the courage to be selfless and fight for change. The tickets given to them are for the next five-and-a-half years, not just 3 months,” he said.