New Delhi: A number of veteran politicians who were elected to Delhi assembly on a Congress or a BJP ticket in the past are likely to contest as Aam Aadmi Party candidates in the coming elections.
While several former legislators have jumped ship and joined the Arvind Kejriwal-led party, sources said more could be impressed upon them to join AAP. Senior party functionaries said the entry of old BJP and Congress members will not only help AAP reinforcing its position as the most popular political party in the capital, but will also create a pool of experienced politicians who have a following of their own. With AAP likely to change several sitting MLAs to beat anti-incumbency, the former elected representatives would probably be the first choice when the party selects its candidates.
Some of those who have recently joined AAP include Vir Singh Dhingan and Sumesh Shokeen from Congress and Brahm Singh Tanwar, Surinder Pal Singh Bittu and Anil Jha from BJP. While Dhingan was elected consecutively to the assembly in 1998, 2003 and 2008 from Seemapuri, Bittu represented Timarpur on a Congress ticket in 2003 and 2008 before joining BJP. Sumesh was elected from Matiala in 2008 while Jha won twice in 2008 and 2013 from Kirari. Tanwar was elected from Chhatarpur in 2013. Due to AAP's stellar performance in its first election in 2013, when it returned with an impressive tally of 28 in the 70 member assembly, and a juggernaut in 2015 and 2020, when it won 67 and 62 seats, respectively, these candidates were on the receiving end.
AAP's first list, released last month, featured six candidates who joined it from BJP and Congress. The party denied tickets to three sitting MLAs in the first list while two prominent names — assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel and Timarpur MLA Dilip Pandey — recently announced that they wouldn't contest this time. Within hours of their announcements on different days, AAP inducted former MLAs who had represented these seats earlier, indicating their probably candidature.
With AAP at the helm a decade, a senior party functionary accepted there was anti-incumbency both against the govt and the individual MLAs and replacing them was one way to counter it. In 2020, AAP had changed the sitting MLAs in nearly 16 constituencies. The party functionary said the number could go up this time. He added that apart from its own workers and municipal councillors, AAP was also considering the candidates fielded by the other two parties, which gave a good fight to AAP's candidates and were close second in the race. "Such candidates have their own vote bank of a few thousand votes. Irrespective of the party they contest from, they have their own fixed number of votes," said a party functionary.
The functionary added "The surveys we conducted across the city tell us that AAP is still popular and people want Arvind Kejriwal back, but in many seats they are unhappy with the MLA. By replacing the legislator with another locally reputed candidate, we can correct the situation," the functionary added.
So far, MLAs who have been denied tickets have not openly opposed the party's decisions.