Mandhir Singh Deol
New Delhi, 20 December
Aam Aadmi Party has today nominated Mahendra Chaudhary as candidate from Mehrauli in place of Naresh Yadav. Naresh Yadav was convicted in the Quran desecration case last month. Yadav, the sitting MLA from Mehrauli, has been sentenced to two years in prison by a Punjab court in the 2016 Quran desecration case.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National General Secretary (Organization) Sandeep Pathak released the party’s fifth list, in which Chaudhary has been nominated from the Mehrauli seat. Earlier, Naresh Yadav said in a post on ‘X’ that he met party convener Arvind Kejriwal and told him that he will not contest the election until he is acquitted by the court. Announcing his withdrawal from the candidature, he said, “12 years ago I joined the Aam Aadmi Party inspired by honorable Arvind Kejriwal’s honest politics. This party has given me a lot. After meeting Arvind ji today, I told him that I will not contest the election until I am acquitted by the honorable court.
I am completely innocent and the allegations leveled against me are politically motivated and false. So I have requested them to exempt me from contesting the election. I will continue to serve people. Mehrauli and will work like a normal worker. I will try my best to make Kejriwal the Chief Minister again.” AAP has fielded senior leaders again.
Cabinet Ministers Saurabh Bhardwaj, Gopal Roy, Imran Hussain, Raghuvinder Shoukin and Mukesh Kumar Ahlawat will contest from Greater Kailash, Babarpur, Ballimaran, Nangloi Jat and Sultanpur Majra respectively. The party did not give tickets to several sitting MLAs and half a dozen defectors were also rewarded with a place in the first list.