Former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday issued his first statement after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) released the second list of candidates for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections in 2025 and fielded Avadh Ojha from the Patparganj constituency. "I am happy to hand over Patparganj's responsibility to another teacher. Now I am ready to work with everyone in Jangpura to do the same work that I did in Patparganj for education, service, and development," Sisodia said in a post on X.
He also said politics is not a means to power for him, but a means to education, honesty and public welfare. "From Patparganj to Jangpura, my resolve is firm: to make Delhi even better," he said.
"My heartfelt gratitude to @ArvindKejriwal ji and @AamAadmiParty, who showed faith in me and gave me the responsibility of contesting elections from Jangpura. I consider myself a teacher, not a politician. Patparganj was not just an assembly constituency for me, but the heart of the education revolution in Delhi. When Avadh Ojha ji joined the party and there was a demand to field him in the elections, all I could think was that there could be no better seat than Patparganj for a teacher," he said.
Earlier in the day, the Aam Aadmi Party released its second list of 20 candidates for the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls, fielding senior party leader Manish Sisodia from the Jangpura seat.
Educator Avadh Ojha, who recently joined the AAP, has been fielded from the Patparganj seat, which is held by Sisodia in the current assembly.
The list also includes the names of Jitender Singh Shunty (fielded from Shahdara) and Surinder Pal Singh Bittu (Timarpur), who recently quit the BJP to join the AAP.
Shunty replaces sitting AAP MLA and Speaker in the outgoing Assembly Ram Niwas Goel, while Bittu has been fielded in place of Dilip Pandey, AAP's chief whip in the house.
The AAP had announced 11 candidates in its first list for the polls. The elections for 70-member Delhi Assembly are due before February.
