Ending speculation of an alliance with the Congress for the upcoming general elections, the Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday announced names of its candidates for six of the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi.
AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the party's seventh candidate will be announced soon.
"Congratulations and best wishes. Seventh candidate will be announced soon. Delhiites will will have full statehood this time," he tweeted
The six candidates were earlier appointed as the party's in-charge for the parliamentary constituencies in the national capital.
Addressing a press conference here, Delhi AAP convener Gopal Rai said Atishi will contest from East Delhi, Guggan Singh from northwest Delhi, Raghav Chadha from south, Dilip Pandey from northeast, Pankaj Gupta from Chandni Chowk and Brijesh Goyal from New Delhi seats.
Rai said the candidate for West Delhi will be announced soon.
During a meeting of 'mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) leaders at NCP chief Sharad Pawar's residence last month, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had refused a proposal for a tie-up between his party and the AAP citing opposition from the grand old party's Delhi unit leaders, Rai claimed.
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The Delhi Congress, in it's meeting on Friday, which was attended by its president Sheila Dikshit, had decided to convey to the party high command that it was against any alliance with the AAP in Delhi.
"We wanted an alliance. But the way Sheila Dikshit refused it we felt there is no more time to wait as elections are near," Rai said, but added that the AAP still believed that there should be only one candidate of the Opposition against the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls.
"We still feel that there should be one candidate of the opposition against the BJP in the elections, not only in Delhi but in other states also," he said.
Earlier, Kejriwal had said that he wanted an alliance but was tired of convincing the Congress for it. He had warned that the BJP would again win all the seven seats in Delhi if there was no alliance between the AAP and the Congress in the national capital.
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