 "Delhi polls: Dissent in AAP's top leadership over ticket distribution")
“There were many issues related to a few candidates who were given tickets by the party. I had submitted 12 names to the internal Lokpal (ombudsman) two weeks back and the party recommended the removal of two of them,” Bhushan told Business Standard.
When asked if Bhushan was upset with party convener Arvind Kejriwal over this issue, he said, “I don’t want to make a comment about it right now.”
Sources said Bhushan had submitted the names to the party’s internal ombudsman headed by Admiral (Retired) Ramdas after these candidates were allegedly found to be indulging in wrong practices to campaign for the party.
Sources said a few of these candidates had recently joined the party and had contested the previous Assembly elections on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket.
One of them was a former Bharatiya Janata Party councillor. Sources said Bhushan had accused them of misutilising the party’s campaign funds and providing wrong information in their affidavits regarding criminal cases.
| AAP senior leader Prashant Bhushan had formally objected to 12 candidates contesting Delhi elections on AAP tickets. However, the party’s internal Lokpal had rejected only two of them. Here are the names of those the party did not reject: | |
| Candidates | Constituency |
| Amanatullah Khan | Okhla |
| Sahi Ram | Tughlakabad |
| Bhavna Gaur | Palam |
| Parmila Tokas | R K Puram |
| Kartar Singh Tanwar | Chhatarpur |
| Ajesh Yadav | Badli |
| Sharad Kumar | Narela |
| Ved Parkash | Bawana |
| Mohd Yunus | Mustafabad |
| Mohd Ishraque | Seelampur |
In the elections, scheduled to be held on Febuary 7, AAP has fielded 36 new faces compared to the previous Assembly elections in 2013. During a press conference held on Saturday, party spokespersons evaded giving direct replies to media queries on Bhushan’s complaint regarding candidate selection.
Party spokesperson Ashutosh said, “The AAP is the only party with an internal Lokpal and the system of appointing an ombudsman. We have a three-member complaint committee headed by Anand Kumar which looks into any objections related to candidate selection.” Another senior leader Sanjay Singh said, “If any issue crops up against any candidate even on the last day, we will cancel his candidature.” Singh claimed the party has a “robust” system of filtering candidates.
A senior party leader admitted Bhushan had raised the issues of fielding these contestants and said, “Everyone has their own opinion about the candidates and all complaints are flagged off to a committee, which takes appropriate actions if it finds merit in the case. On the basis of this complaint, we had cancelled the tickets of two contestants.”
Following an internal inquiry, the party had replaced two of its candidates — Govardhan Singh from Mehrauli and Rajinder Dabas from Mundka, a day before the deadline of filing nominations papers with the poll panel.
However, the AAP leader said no concrete evidence was found against the other 10 candidates and hence it was decided that no action be taken against them.
Singh was labeled as “anti-party” and there were allegations of Dabas’ involvement in a suicide case.