In a major jolt to Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) hopes for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the nomination of party’s candidate for Gautam Buddh Nagar, Shweta Sharma, was rejected after she failed to bring the requisite people to back her nomination for her candidature in the Lok Sabha elections.
The action was taken because AAP, as per the Election Commission guidelines, is not a national party and thus needed a minimum presence of 10 people to back her candidature.
BN Singh, the DM of Gautam Buddh Nagar, said, “She said in her nomination papers that she is a candidate from the Aam Aadmi Party. AAP is not a recognised regional party in Uttar Pradesh. It is not recognised as a national party by the Election Commission as well. It is recognised in Delhi though. This was a flaw in her claim.”
Singh further added, “The nomination process was allowed till 3 pm of March 25. Today the nominations were scrutinised and the candidate was told to bring any document, a court order or directive, to substantiate her claim, but she came up with none and had only one proposer. The decision (to reject her nomination) was taken on this basis.”
Interestingly, out of the 21 candidates, who had filed for the nomination as Lok Sabha candidates for this constituency, 8 have been rejected. Needless to say, Shweta Sharma cried hoarse, labeling this as a conspiracy by BJP.
The rejection of Shweta Sharma’s candidature is a clear signal to where the Aam Aadmi Party is headed. With no popularity amongst the locals and constant rejections by most of the political parties, AAP has fallen flat on its face within 6 years of its grand entry into politics. Even party supremo, Arvind Kejriwal, is in no mood to relent and wishes to continue with his negative brand of politics.
Gautam Buddh Nagar goes to polls on April 11, 2019.