BENGALURU: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday released its first list of 80 candidates which sans its own state convenor Prithvi Reddy and primarily has nondescript names across all corners of state and all walks of life.
The AAP list, in its first foray into Karnataka assembly elections, however, does include a notable lawyer, bureaucrat and a Kannada cine actor.
A former SC lawyer, Brijesh Kalappa, who was till last year the spokesperson for the Karnataka Congress and jumped to AAP, K Mathai, a former KAS officer and an anti-corruption crusader and cine actor Tennis Krishna who will be contesting on AAP tickets from Bengaluru seats of Chickpet, Shanthinagar and Turvekere in Tumakuru district respectively.
The names also include techies like Shanthala Damle and Mohan Dasari, who contested polls previously in 2013 and 2019 for the assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
However, party state convener Reddy has "delayed" his candidature.
"While I have not said I will not contest, my first priority is to find the right candidate for 223 of the 224 seats. We will be shortly announcing at least another two rounds of list from AAP for all the segments," he said.
Of the 80 names on the list, the AAP claims that over 50 per cent of them are youngsters who are below the age of 45 years and at least 7 of them are farmers and another 7 women.
"We are trying to identify farmers who can contest in direct elections and also try to break the traditional barriers by having more women participate in the elections. We are certain of being miles ahead of the other political parties by the time all the candidates are announced," he said.
On the lack of big names, Reddy said the AAP is looking at those who can work for Karnataka rather than those whose names are popular.
