Party to begin campaign from Aarey colony on Wednesday
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which will be contesting the State Assembly elections for the first time, announced its first list of eight candidates on Monday. The party had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from the State, but failed to win a single seat.
The party’s candidates include Advocate Paromita Goswami from Brahmapuri in Chandrapur, Dr. Ananda Gurav from Karveer in Kolhapur, and Vishal Vadghule from Nandgaon in Nashik.
The party has declared two candidates from Pune district: Dr. Abhijit More, State co-convenor of Jan Aarogya Abhiyan, will contest from Kothrud, while Sandeep Sonawane, co-convenor of AAP’s youth wing, has been fielded from Parvati.
The AAP has decided to make the environment a key focus area this elections and will be starting its campaign from Aarey Milk Colony on Wednesday. The party will be fielding Vitthal Lad, who has been active with tribal communities in Aarey, as their candidate from Jogeshwari (East). They will also be contesting Chandivali and Dindoshi seats, where they have fielded Siraj Khan and Dilip Tawde respectively.
Meanwhile, AAP State secretary Dhananjay Shinde accused the Opposition parties of conducting “an import/export business”, referring to the series of defections from the Congess and the NCP to the BJP and the Shiv Sena in the run-up to the polls. Mr. Shinde said the party had received nearly 650 applications from candidates and have shortlisted 50 people. He said the names of the other candidates will be declared soon. Mr. Shinde said the other parties have not yet declared their candidates as they are not confident of their sitting MLAs regaining power.
AAP national executive member Preeti Sharma Menon said the party was fighting the polls over issues that affect people’s daily lives both in rural and urban areas of the State.
She said the party is in talks with the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, but is prepared to fight the elections alone if required. She said, “The seats that we have declared today are our strong seats and we should not have an issue if an alliance is sealed.”
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