Aam Aadmi Party led by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced Atishi Marlena, a former advisor to city’s Education Minister Manish Sisodia, as its candidate in the Lok Sabha election from East Delhi constituency.
She is the first candidate to be announced by AAP for the 2019 elections, reported news agency IANS.
Marlena was an advisor to Sisodia between July 2015 to April 17, 2018 and was also involved in drafting the manifesto of the party in the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections.
The announcement of Marlena as the AAP candidate from East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency comes amidst reports that the Congress is not keen to form an alliance with Kejriwal for the 2019 elections. The reluctance shown by the Congress in aligning with the AAP has been primarily because of the nasty campaign run by Kejriwal in 2013 assembly elections against Sheila Dikshit, the then incumbent chief minister.
One source said that AAP had decided to field its candidates in only five out of seven seats in Delhi and leave two for the Congress. In return, the Kejriwal’s party was reportedly considering not fielding any candidate in Punjab.
Last month Delhi Congress chief, Ajay Maken, had rejected the Aam Aadmi Party’s reported offer to leave 2-3 seats for the next year’s Lok Sabha polls.
The announcement on Marlena came on the day Kejriwal took to Twitter to explain why voters in Delhi should vote for his party in 2019.
दिल्ली के विकास के लिए आम आदमी पार्टी के हाथ मज़बूत कीजिए। आम आदमी पार्टी मज़बूत होगी तो आप मज़बूत होंगे। pic.twitter.com/74W1dfHxam
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) August 27, 2018
In 2014, riding on Modi wave, the BJP had swept Delhi by winning all seven Lok Sabha polls. However, in 2015 assembly elections, Kejriwal led his party to win 67 out of 70 assembly seats even though his party failed to repeat its performance in the last year’s municipal elections.