Congress, BJP leaders get AAP tickets

Three independent councillors and leaders earlier associated with the Congress, the BJP and other parties have bagged AAP tickets for the coming polls.

Three independent councillors and several other leaders earlier associated with the Congress, the BJP and other political parties have bagged Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) tickets for the coming Assembly polls.

The AAP had been claiming that several leaders and workers from other political parties had expressed their desire to join the party.

The three sitting councillors are: Vinod Kumar Binny (Laxmi Nagar Assembly seat), Mahinder Yadav (Vikaspuri seat) and Desh Raj Raghav (Uttam Nagar seat). While Binny and Raghav were earlier associated with the Congress, Yadav was formerly associated with the BJP.

Forty-year-old Binny, a resident of Vasundhara Enclave, had won as an independent twice and claimed to be an advocate of the concept of Swaraj (self governance for smaller units). He was a Congress member from 2009-2011 but left the party to join the India Against Corruption movement.

Yadav, a resident of Hastasaal near Uttam Nagar in west Delhi, is a businessman known for his social work in the area. He was BJP’s OBC Cell general secretary for almost a decade and participated in the India Against Corruption campaign. ‘Disappointed by the BJP’, he quit the party and won the 2012 municipal elections as an independent.

It was with Raghav’s candidature that AAP faced the most resistance. He has been associated with politics and political parties for a long time and was also the district chief of Najafgarh Congress.

He was active during the India Against Corruption campaign led by Anna Hazare. He quit the Congress, as its leaders were unhappy with his participation in the anti-graft campaign, prompting him to fight the 2012.

Two examples of secondary affiliation are Rajesh Garg whose wife had fought on a Congress ticket and environmental activist Kapil Mishra, the Karawal Nagar candidate, who is the son of a BJP councilor.