Reeling from ordinance blow, but AAP looks ahead, finalises team of seven for 2024 battle

AAP leaders said party workers would soon begin work assigned to them in the constituencies. In 2019, the BJP won all seven constituencies.

“We have to start working on the ground for the Lok Sabha elections. While our MLAs and councillors are in regular touch with the electors, work on the campaign and organisational work will begin with these appointments,” a party leader said.

Party sources told The Indian Express that “appointments have also been timed keeping in mind the tussle between the Centre and AAP government”.

“Keeping in mind the way the democratic process and the Constitution are being subverted, this is the right time to strike. The party leadership will also hit the ground in the coming days and that will give impetus to the campaign,” a leader said.

Here are the seven men tasked with leading AAP to victory in Delhi next year:

Dilip Pandey

A former convener of the AAP’s Delhi state unit, Pandey has been associated with various AAP leaders since the anti-corruption movement of 2011 through which the party emerged. Pandey, who is from Uttar Pradesh, worked in Hong Kong as an IT expert before joining the party.

He resigned as convener after the AAP’s loss in the 2017 Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections. He also contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from the North East Delhi constituency against the BJP’s Manoj Tiwari and Sheila Dixit of the Congress. Tiwari won the seat by almost three lakh votes.

Pandey won the 2020 Assembly elections from Timarpur.

Jarnail Singh

Singh, 41, is a three-time MLA from Tilak Nagar. He was also part of the 2011 anti-corruption movement.

He was placed in charge of Punjab before the state Assembly polls last year. The massive victory there proved to be a major boost for the party, with Punjab being the first major state where it came to power. Singh’s profile and role in the party have since grown and he is now considered someone with a penchant for organisational groundwork.

Gulab Singh

The two-time Matiala MLA is among the more controversial names on the list. Ahead of the MCD polls last year, the BJP accused him of selling tickets. He denied the allegations, dismissing them as rumours. Gulab Singh was appointed the party’s Gujarat in-charge before the Assembly polls in December and was subsequently promoted to election campaign in-charge.

Jitender Tomar

Tomar, who started his political career with the Congress, is a former Delhi Law minister who quit his post in 2015 following allegations that his law degree was fake. The Delhi Police arrested him in the case. Tomar first contested on an AAP ticket in the 2013 Assembly polls but lost. The party fielded him again in 2015 and 2020. He won both times.

Rituraj Jha

A two-time MLA from Outer Delhi’s Kirari constituency, Jha is originally from Samastipur in Bihar. He studied hotel management and worked in a five-star hotel in Delhi when he became a part of the anti-corruption movement. This eventually led him to the AAP. He is seen as an important leader from the Purvanchal community, whose members are originally from eastern UP or Bihar. They are estimated to comprise 33% of Delhi’s population.

Rajesh Gupta

Gupta who is a shoe businessman also joined the anti-corruption movement in 2011. He went to New York to pursue a theatre course but returned to formally join the party in 2013. He won the Assembly polls in 2015 and 2020.

Kuldeep Kumar

Among the party’s prominent Dalit faces, Kumar has been at the forefront of protests against the arrests of AAP leaders in the past year. Kumar was also among the front-runners for the social welfare ministerial berth after Rajendra Pal Gautam quit following a controversy related to a mass conversion event in the city.