The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday, March 31, announced the second list of candidates for the Karnataka Assembly polls, scheduled to be held on May 10. The list was announced by AAP state chief Prithvi Reddy and party's State Election in-charge Dilip Pandey. In the first list, the party had announced 80 candidates and the second list names 60 candidates.
Reddy said the AAP had declared the first list ahead of all parties and manifesto has also been released. "Now, we have released a list of 60 candidates, this shows we are ahead of all other parties," he added.
"AAP is providing opportunities to the common man. Like the first list, in the second list too, the average age of our candidates does not exceed 45 years. In the two lists, 23 engineers, 14 farmers, 18 advocates, 11 women, six doctors, five techies and five doctorate holders are given tickets. The two lists have 68 graduates and six MBA graduates," he added.
"Among the 60 candidates in the second list, 59 are contesting for the first time. A former Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) conductor has also been given a ticket. The survey conducted in the state has shown that 46 per cent of people want a new government other than BJP, Congress and JD(S). We are not only bringing in the new party, but also new candidates," he claimed.
"Punjab CM was defeated by a man who worked at a mobile shop. We are inspired by it and that magic is going to be repeated in Karnataka," Reddy stated. Reddy was talking about former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, who was defeated by AAP's candidate Labh Singh Ugoke (a worker at a mobile repair shop) in Bahadur constituency in Punjab Assembly polls.