AAP undecided over candidate for Vizag Lok Sabha seat, yet to finalise list

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, April 10, 2014:  The newest entrant into India’s political landscape, Aam Admi Party (AAP) seems to be weighing its options and undecided on fielding candidate for Vizag Lok Sabha seat.

Though the party leadership, finalized candidates for Vizianagaram and Srikakulam seats, after holding interviews with the aspirants, they are yet to find a suitable candidate to contest from Vizag Lok Sabha constituency. Party has received over than 50 applications and interviews were also conducted at Hyderabad by a party panel.

According to party insiders no candidate was impressive and suitable to carry the party forward in Vizag, which is considered as the only urban conglomeration after Hyderabad and only one in the successor state of Andhra Pradesh having good base of urban and youth voters. They don’t want a poor show to affect party’s future in Vizag.

The party leaders are of the opinion that a defeat in Vizag  Lok Sabha will have a negative impact on the party prospects in the municipal corporation polls which are likely to be held after general elections.

The main focus of the local AAP leaders seems to be to strengthen the base, to contest and bag Vizag municipal corporation to have a better connect with the urban voters.

“Though we wanted to field a candidate for Vizag Lok Sabha we are still thinking whether to be in the fray or not this time. We have not found a right candidate yet. We don’t want to take chances in Vizag which is very important for us on the long run and in future. Our candidate’s defeat would have a negative impact on the party chances in municipal polls,” a party insider having knowledge about Vizag developments told this correspondent.

Normal lawyers, doctors, software developers and young entrepreneurs are among those who applied for Vizag seat. There are no prominent faces among the applicants.

The party active membership also said to have reached 60,000 numbers. When the membership drive was launched in the first week of January, around 1,000 persons were enrolled in just 2 days. Against the target of 1 lakh memberships by March only close to 20,000 till last month.

“As of now we are still evaluating some candidates. Since there is almost a week’s time for the nominations to be filed we are confident of selecting a candidate by then,” local AAP coordinator, Abhishek Banthia told this correspondent.