NEW DELHI // The anti-corruption campaigner Arvind Kejriwal’s party pushed ahead on Sunday with preparations to contest India’s general election, just days after he resigned as Delhi chief minister.
Mr Kejriwal’s upstart Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced its first 20 candidates in the election due by May, including those who will stand against the two main political parties.
“This is our first list of 20 clean candidates and we will be putting out more lists to contest from different parts of the country in the days ahead,” said Manish Sisodia, a senior AAP leader.
The move comes less than 48 hours after Mr Kejriwal resigned as chief minister of Delhi, along with his cabinet, when the two main parties combined to thwart his efforts to introduce a new anti-corruption bill.
Mr Kejriwal quit only 49 days after his party took power in the capital, following a stunning breakthrough in the Delhi state election in December that highlighted widespread public anger with the political establishment.
The move leaves Mr Kejriwal, a former anti-graft campaigner, clear to lead his party into battle against the ruling Congress and main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The list of AAP candidates includes activists and professionals who quit their jobs in sectors such as the law, industry and media to join the new party.
The BJP and Congress had on Friday blocked Mr Kejriwal’s move to introduce the anti-graft bill, a key promise in the Delhi election, into the state assembly. They described it as unconstitutional.
Donations to the AAP’s election campaign have swelled dramatically since then, Indian media reported.
The party surprised many observers by winning 28 seats in Delhi’s 70-member assembly in December.
During its brief stint in power, Mr Kejriwal unveiled a series of headline-grabbing initiatives, including a hotline aimed at stemming rampant corruption among police and bureaucrats.
After shunning the usual official car and instead taking the subway to his swearing-in ceremony, Mr Kejriwal then slashed electricity costs and announced free water supplies.
But while his elevation was initially widely welcomed as a much-needed shock to the system, the former tax inspector has since come in for criticism over a series of stand-offs with the authorities.
The self-styled “anarchist” staged a sit-in on the pavement near the national parliament last month, triggering chaos in the city centre, as part of a push to be given greater control over Delhi’s police force.
* Agence France-Presse
