The Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday released its first list of 11 candidates for the Delhi Assembly elections likely to be held early next year.
The list includes six turncoat leaders, of whom three crossed over from the Bharatiya Janata Party and three from the Congress.
The Delhi Assembly elections are expected to be held on or before February 2025. The Election Commission has not announced the schedule yet.
The Aam Aadmi Party announced that former BJP MLA Brahm Singh Tanwar will contest from Chhatarpur, while another former BJP MLA, Anil Jha, has been nominated from Kirari.
BB Tyagi, a former BJP leader and two-time councillor, will contest on an Aam Aadmi Party ticket from Laxmi Nagar.
Chaudhry Zubair Ahmad, son of five-time MLA and Congress leader Mateen Ahmed, has been nominated from Seelampur.
Veer Singh Dhingan, a three-time Congress MLA, has been named as Aam Aadmi party candidate from Seemapuri.
Somesh Shaukeen, a former Congress MLA who joined Aam Aadmi Party this year, will contest from Matiala.
The announcement comes days after key Aam Aadmi Party leader Kailash Gahlot resigned from the party and joined the BJP.
Kejriwal said earlier that election tickets would be awarded based on candidates’ work, public opinion and their chances of winning, reported The Hindu.
In September, Kejriwal resigned as Chief Minister of Delhi and was replaced by party leader and Delhi minister Atishi.
The resignation came days after Kejriwal was released on bail in the Delhi liquor policy case. The bail conditions included Kejriwal not being allowed to visit the chief minister’s office or the Delhi secretariat.
At the time of resignation, Kejriwal said he would return to the post only after voters express their support for him. He had demanded that the Delhi Assembly elections be held in November along with the Maharashtra polls.
Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on March 21, which is investigating allegations of money laundering in the case based on a first information report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The Aam Aadmi Party won 62 of the 70 Assembly seats in the last state elections held in 2020.