Delhi Assembly Elections 2025: AAP releases first list of 11 candidates, fields BJP, Congress turncoats

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The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday announced its first list of 11 candidates for the Delhi Assembly Elections 2025, dropping three sitting legislators and fielding six leaders who switched over from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress recently.

According to PTI, the names of the candidates were declared after a meeting of AAP's political affairs committee, headed by party's national convener Arvind Kejriwal.

Elections in the national capital are due in February to elect 70 members of the Delhi Legislative Assembly. AAP, which is ruling Delhi since 2015, is the first party to release a list of candidates. The party had won 62 seats in the 2020 assembly polls.

Delhi AAP convener Gopal Rai made the announcement of the names at a press conference in the national capital, reported PTI. During the press conference, Rai said the party made the early declaration because eight of the 11 constituencies are not held by AAP.

Six of these eight constituencies are currently held by BJP.

He also refuted claims that outsiders who recently joined AAP were given tickets at the cost of party leaders. Talking to reporters, Rai said the tickets were given strictly based on performance, surveys and public opinion as was promised by Kejriwal.

Sitting AAP Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) who were denied tickets include Rituraj Jha from Kirari, Gulab Singh Yadav from Matiala and Abdul Rahman from Seelampur. Both Jha and Gulab Singh are two-term MLAs.

The party fielded Brahm Singh Tanwar from Chhatarpur, Anil Jha from Kirari and BB Tyagi from Laxmi Nagar. All three recently quit the BJP and joined AAP.

Former Congress leader Choudhary Zubair Ahmed has been fielded from Seelampur, while ex-MLAs Veer Singh Dhingan and Somesh Shokeen have been given tickets from Seemapuri and Matiala, respectively. Ahmed, Dhingan and Shokeen joined AAP after resigning from the Congress.

Meanwhile, AAP's Chhatarpur legislator, Kartar Singh Tanwar, quit the party and joined BJP. He was disqualified as MLA by the Speaker.

Another MLA, Rajender Pal Gautam from Seemapuri, resigned from the membership of the Delhi Assembly to join the Congress.

Former AAP legislator Sarita Singh (Rohtas Nagar), Ram Singh Netaji (Badarpur), Gaurav Sharma (Ghonda), Manoj Tyagi (Karawal Nagar) and Deepak Singhal (Vishwas Nagar) are the other candidates whose names figure in the first list of the party.

AAP has also fielded Sarita Singh and Ram Singh Netaji again from Rohtas Nagar and Badarpur, respectively. They lost to their BJP rivals in the 2020 Assembly polls with narrow margins.

Rai said that the party has paced its campaign for Delhi Assembly Elections 2025 with the release of these 11 names, adding that in the coming days, AAP will start a new campaign.