Lucknow: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will contest all the 80 Lok Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh, party spokesman Sanjay Singh said.
Singh, a close associate of AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, said the party was pushing for clean and honest politics and hoped that issues like casteism and communalism will be relegated to the back burner.
He admitted these two issues have long stood ground in the state and that they were major challenges. But, he said, time has come to change traditional politics and the common man has embraced development as a major poll plank.
Singh said the party will be finalising names soon and efforts would be made to announce the first list of its Lok Sabha poll candidates by February 15.
He underlined that the AAP candidates, like in New Delhi, would be common people, the ‘aam aadmi’. He said the national executive of the party which met in Delhi on Sunday has decided to field candidates in 20 states.
It was almost certain that poet Kumar Vishwas would contest against Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi in Amethi constituency, he added.
The AAP spokesman said the party will field candidates against Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi from Rae Bareli and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav in Mainpuri.
Earlier, Singh said people interested in contesting the Lok Sabha polls can fill forms till January 15 and that the aspirants would have to get the endorsement of at least 100 people from their probable constituencies.
Meanwhile, the AAP government in Delhi effected a second reshuffle of bureaucrats after assuming power. Arun Goyal, who until now was principal secretary (urban development), will replace S S Yadav as principal secretary-cum commissioner (food and supplies). During the Congress rule, Yadav was entrusted the task of implementing food security scheme — the UPA government’s flagship programme.
North Delhi’s Municipal Corporation’s (NDMC) Deputy Commissioner Padmini Singla has also been repatriated and posted as director (education). Now, Niharika Rai, who was additional secretary (food and supplies), will be NDMC’s deputy commissioner on deputation. On the very first day of assuming charge (December 28, 2013), the AAP reshuffled quite a number of IAS officers. IANS
