Delhi Assembly Elections: These 15 Sitting MLAs Did Not Get Aam Aadmi Party Ticket

Delhi Assembly Elections 2020: The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday announced its list of 70 candidates for the February 8 Delhi Assembly polls, with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal contesting again from New Delhi seat and his deputy Manish Sisodia from Patparganj seat. The party has dropped 15 sitting MLAs and given tickets to a total of 24 new faces, including Atishi, Dilip Pandey and Raghav Chadha who unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The party has fielded new candidates on four seats held by opposition BJP and five seats which fell vacant after the AAP MLAs defected.

15 AAP MLAs Denied Tickets

Among the major sitting MLAs who were denied ticket by the party are party's chief whip in the assembly Jagdeep Singh (Hari Nagar), Surender Commando (Delhi Cantt) and Haji Ishraq Khan (Seelampur). The sitting MLAs denied tickets also include Pankaj Pushkar (Timar Pur), Ram Chander (Bawana),Sukhbir Dalal (Mundka), Hazari Lal Chauhan (Patel Nagar), Vijender Garg (Rajendra Nagar), Avtar Singh (Kalkaji), N D Sharma (Badarpur), Raju Dhingan (Trilokpuri), Manoj Kumar (Kondli), Choudhary Fateh Singh(Gokulpur) and Asim Ahmed Khan (Matia Mahal).

They were replaced by Dilip Pandey (Timarpur), Jai Bhagwan Upkar (Bawana), Dharampal Lakada (Mundka), Raj Kumar Anand (Patel Nagar), Raj Kumari Dhillo (Hari Nagar), Vinay Kumar Singh (Dwarka), Virender Singh Kadyan (Delhi Cantt), Raghav Chadha (Rajendra Nagar), Ram Singh Netaji (Badarpur), Rohit Kumar Mehroliya (Trilokpuri), Kuldeep Kumar (Kondli), Abdul Rahman (Seelampur), Surendra Kumar (Gokalpur) and Shoaib Iqbal (Matia Mahal)

Adarsh Shastri, who is former PM Lal Bahadur Shastri's grandson, has been replaced by Vinay Mishra from the Dwarka seat. Vinay is the son of heavyweight Congress leader Mahabal Mishra.

In Chandni Chowk, Congress import Prahlad Singh Sawhney has replaced MLA Alka Lamba who has in turn joined Congress. Sawhney had won Delhi elections on Congress ticket in 1998, 2003, 2008 and 2013 elections. 

In Karawal Nagar, Kapil Mishra has been replaced by senior party member Durgesh Pathak.

Bijwasan MLA Devendra Sherawat was suspended from the party after he raised the banner of rebellion against Kejriwal with Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan. Since then, Sherawat has joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). AAP have now nominated advocate BS Joon from the seat.

AAP lost the Rajouri Garden seat in 2017 bypolls to BJP-Akali Dal after its sitting legislator Jarnail Singh dropped out to contest in Punjab. Now they have fielded Dhanwanti Chandila.

AAP's Anil Bajpai defected to the BJP last year after the Kejriwal-led party sacked him for rebelling against the outfit. Naveen Choudhary (Deepu) will now fight polls on AAP ticket in 2020.

5 'Impotrs' From Congress Get AAP Ticket

The AAP has also given ticket to five leaders who jumped ship from the Congress, including five-time MLA Shoaib Iqbal who will fight from Matia Mahal. Iqbal has replaced sitting MLA Asim Ahmed Khan. Rajkumari Dhillon, who joined AAP from Congress, will contest from Hari Nagar. She will be replacing sitting MLA Jagdeep Singh. Four-time MLA Parlad Singh Sawhney, who also deserted Congress, will fight from Chandni Chowk. Two-time MLA Ram Singh Netaji, who joined the party on Monday, will fight from Badarpur. He will replace sitting MLA N D Sharma.

ALSO READ: AAP releases names of 70 candidates for Delhi assembly polls- Full List

AAP Names Four Muslim Candidates

Iqbal, who was former Deputy Speaker in Delhi Assembly, is among four Muslim candidates. The others -- Amanatullah Khan from Okhla, Haji Yunus from Mustafabad and Imran Hussain from Ballimaran -- are sitting MLAs.

Here are the 15 sitting AAP MLAs who lost their ticket and the candidates who replaced them:

These are the nine candidates for non-AAP or vacant seats: 

Sultanpur Majra: Mukesh Kumar Ahlawat

Rohini Rajesh: Nama Bansiwala

Chandani Chowk: Parlad Singh Sawhney

Rajouri Garden: Dhanwati Chandela

Bijwasan: BS Joon

Vishwas Nagar: Deepak Singla

Gandhinagar: Naveen Chaudhary (Deepu)

Mustafabad: Haji Yunus

Karawal Nagar: Durgesh Pathak