The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is making its political debut, but many of its candidates are not. Unlike the top leadership of the party, which has a complete non-political background, more than a dozen of its nominees have spent years with the Congress and BJP, whom AAP has branded absolutely corrupt. They also held crucial organisational posts before joining the AAP. Most candidates say they had a change of heart during Anna Hazare’s Jan Lokpal movement and jumped on to the anti-corruption bandwagon. Those like Anil Kumar Vajpayi (56), AAP’s nominee from Gandhi Nagar, had other reasons as well. “He was head of Delhi Congress Committee, had a rift with Sheila Dikshit over price rise, which led him to confront the chief minister,” his bio-data says. “It’s a myth that AAP is a party of newbies. You cannot win elections only with those who sacrifice their careers and deliver well-meaning talk. Knowing full well that the ability to win is the sole factor in the elections we have had to field experienced leaders,” said another AAP leader.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 15:09:33 +0000