Adarsh, who along with senior party leaders including journalist-turned-politician Ashutosh and Sanjay Singh, was in the city to supervise the interviews of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, said, “Separate committees would be formed for every constituency to take feedback from people to draft separate manifesto.”

“The party will also engage economists, activists and academics for the job. Similar process would be adopted for drafting of UP vision document. The deadline is March 15. The unique part would be that people will not only help in drafting manifestoes but will also spell out how and where candidates, if elected, will spend their MPLAD funds,” said Adarsh, who is son of Congress leader Anil Shastri.

Adarsh said that he may also contest the election, if party asks him so. “But, at the moment my priority is to give shape to vision document for UP which, despite having all the required resources, is still one of the most backward states of the country,” he added.

When asked why he chose AAP when his father is in the Congress and uncle Sunil in BJP, he said that he was an apolitical person but AAP’s ideology, which he felt was more close to values of transparency and probity espoused by his grandfather and Mahatma Gandhi, compelled him to join politics. About “politically ideological differences” with his father, Adarsh laughed and said, “We have debated the issue number of times…I even invited him (father) to join AAP.”

Earlier, at a press conference, Sanjay Singh, who is also AAP’s UP in-charge, took a dig at SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s statement in which he hinted that his party may not field candidate against Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi. “Earlier all parties had not fielded candidate against Mulayam’s daughter-in-law in Kannauj Lok Sabha by-poll, which shows that all bigwigs attack each other in public but have an understanding to help each other win elections,” he said. He also attacked BJP for felicitating MLAs accused in Muzaffarnagar.

Ashutosh hit out at BJP’s prime ministerial nominee and chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi, saying how can you expect Modi to control corruption when he continued with a minister Babu Bokhiria, convicted by the court on corruption charges, in his cabinet?” On calling Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung a Congress agent, Ashutosh said, “LG is trying to scuttle Janlokpal Bill of AAP’s Delhi government.” On criticism of Arvind Kejriwal on governance, he said that people have high expectations from AAP government in comparison to other parties, hence even a small is blown up.

However, AAP ruled out alliance with Manpreet Badal-led People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) for the upcoming elections.

“We are contesting on all (13) Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, but search is still on for suitable candidates,” Vishesh Ravi, AAP MLA from Karol Bagh (Delhi) told reporters in Ludhiana today.

Asked about tie-ups with PPP, he said, “In the coming Lok Sabha polls, we do not think if there is any possibility of an alliance with PPP in Punjab.”

The estranged nephew of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Manpreet had many times hinted at striking an alliance with AAP by terming both parties as “twins” with “identical ideology”.

On Jan Lokpal Bill issue, Mr Ravi accused the Centre of “unnecessarily” interfering in the matter.

“The Central government is interfering in the matter without any reason. The Jan Lokpal Bill has been prepared keeping in view aspirations and demands of people of Delhi and thus, if Central government has any issues, the gates of court are always open for them,” he said.

The AAP legislator said his party, since its inception, was not against any political party but was concerned with issues affecting the common man.

“We are not fighting with any party. No one is our enemy.

Our problem is with the way governments are working in this country,” he said.

Meanwhile, the police detained Rakesh Kapoor, a Shiv Sena Punjab leader, as a preventive measure, claiming that they had information of possible attack by Punjab Shiv Sena workers at the venue of AAP MLA’s press conference.

BJP outdid Congress in the expenditure despite the fact that it had fielded lesser number candidates—433 people had fought on BJP tickets and 440 people had contested on a Congress ticket.

The figures were obtained by a Ropar-based RTI activist Dinesh Chadha. The RTI from the EC mentions that the expenditure for India’s two leading parties has been calculated from March 2, 2009, the date of general elections announcement to May 28, the date of poll completion.

While most seats in the state have multiple candidates, the race for the Lucknow constituency is one of the most keen, with as many as 61 aspirants.

AAP central executive member Vaibhav Maheshwari told us that the shortlisting would be done on the parameters set by the party leadership. The first list is likely to be announced by the end of February.

Poet-turned-politician Kumar Vishwas is also likely to appear for the interview as he has applied for the Amethi Lok Sabha seat. Once cleared, he is likely to take on Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi. ”Propsective candidates have been asked to come alone and not to bring any supporters,” Maheshwari said.

Among the applicants are doctors, retired bureaucrats and social workers. They include retired medical practitioner AK Srivastava and railway union leader Shiv Gopal Mishra.

The AAP has said that it would pit formidable candidates against political heavyweights like Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh.

Bibi Kamaldeep Kaur seen with her supporters in Patiala

Anandpur Sahib constituency may turn into a hot seat this year as it is currently in the hands of the India National Congress.  Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana who is lodged in the Patiala Central Jail had earlier announced he would field an independent candidate from both Anandpur Sahib and Patiala.  At the same time, this particular seat would also be of interest to the Shiromani Akali Dal (B) and the Bhartiya Janta Party nexus as they could potentially take advantage of the new candidates to their benefit.

Bibi Kamaldeep Kaur, sister of Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana, has been leading election campaigns in Patiala.  However; who will be Bhai Rajoana’s candidate from Anandpur Sahib constituency is not yet known.

A number of prominent Sikhs have officially declared to support Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party, however Bibi Kamaldeep Kaur recently lashed out at Delhi’s newly appointed Chief Minister for playing in hands of the Congress and indirectly supporting Congress.

Kejriwal, whose year-old party swept to power in Delhi in local elections in December, is working on a national campaign that is likely to split votes for the governing Congress party and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

On Friday, he read from a sheet of paper the names of more than two dozen powerful politicians from across the political spectrum and said his party would field strong candidates against them in the polls due by May.

“Suresh Kalmadi. Should we defeat him or not?” Kejriwal asked a meeting of party leaders to cheers.

Kalmadi was arrested in April 2011 on charges of inflating tenders for equipment used at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, which he headed, and served nine months in prison.

All the politicians Kejriwal has accused have denied any charges of corruption. Cases take years, if not decades, to wind through India’s notoriously slow judicial system.

The AAP’s success in Delhi has led to huge interest in Kejriwal and the party up and down India, where voters seem to be thirsty for change after 10 years of scandal-prone rule by a Congress party-led coalition.

The AAP has only recently begun operating outside the capital and its strength is untested.

Kejriwal’s party will contest at least 350 seats of the 543 lower house of parliament seats, senior party member Sanjay Singh said at a news conference on Thursday.

ATTACKS

An opinion poll conducted early this month suggested the party may only pick up a dozen seats. Its main support is in Delhi and surrounding states such as Haryana and Punjab, polls shows.

Kejriwal on Friday named cabinet ministers, including Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid and Oil Minister Veerappa Moily.

“If we don’t defeat Veerappa Moily, then from April 1 gas and electricity prices will double,” said Kejriwal, who has offered free water and slashed power prices in Delhi since coming to office.

He also attacked the BJP leader Narendra Modi, who polls show is voters’ favourite candidate for prime minister.

Rahul Gandhi, scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty who is leading the Congress party in the campaign, was also cited as an election target although he is not embroiled in any scandal.

Politics in India, the world’s largest democracy, has been plagued by corruption and other problems. About 30 percent of lawmakers across the federal and state legislatures face criminal charges, many for serious crimes such as rape, murder and kidnapping.

Many questions focus on the source of funding for political campaigns. More than 90 percent of funding for the Congress and the BJP comes from unknown sources, according to the advocacy group Association for Democratic Reforms.

But corruption has rarely been an election issue until now. Scandals have come thick and fast on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s watch in the last few years and Kejriwal’s party has quickly tapped into the public disgust over sleaze.

According to the party’s IT department, another 1.6 lakh people from Bihar took online membership during the drive. In Patna, over one lakh people became AAP members. “After Uttar Pradesh, the highest number of members were enrolled in Bihar during the campaign,” an AAP leader said.

Somnath Tripathi, in charge of AAP affairs in Bihar and Jharkhand, told TOI the party was satisfied with the drive. “It has strengthened our desire to contest the Lok Sabha election from all the 40 seats in the state,” he said and added though the campaign had ended, people could still visit the party’s offices and take membership.

The party has divided its organisational structure in the state into four zones. Sources said Muzzafarpur zone with membership of 4.25 lakh during the drive topped the chart. As many as 55,000 people from East Champaran and Siwan joined AAP.

Mithilanchal zone that comprises 12 districts followed with 3.27 lakh membership. Kishanganj and Darbhanga recorded membership of over 50,000 each. Over 40,000 people joined the party in Purnia.

In Magadh zone, 3.08 lakh people took membership while 87,000 people became members in Bhagalpur zone comprising six districts.

However, Bihar watchers are sceptical about AAP’s poll performance in the state. “The figure of 11 lakh may look impressive, but it is a small number when compared to the population of the state,” said A N Sinha Institute of Social Studies director D M Diwakar. Besides, he added, it still remains to be seen how many members will actually vote for the party and whether the momentum remains sustained till the election. “Cadre-building is a difficult exercise especially for a party sans an ideology,” he pointed out.

Bihar unit figures at ongoing meet

At least six AAP leaders from the state are attending the party’s ongoing national council meeting in New Delhi. Talking to TOI over phone from Delhi, one of them Ratnesh Chaudhary said he raised the issue of growing criminalization of the party in Bihar besides other irregularities in the party’s state unit. “One of the three Political Affairs Committee members, Pankaj Gupta, has assured he will be coming in February to look into the matter,” he said.

“I have resigned from the cabinet and the Janata Dal-United and sent the resignation letter to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar,” Amanullah, in her early 50s, told media persons here.

State JD-U president Vashisht Narain Singh requested Amanullah to reconsider her decision.

“I will appeal to Amanullah to take back her resignation. I will be a happy man if she reconsiders her decision,” Singh told IANS here.

Singh, considered close to Nitish Kumar, said Amanullah’s grievances can be sorted out.

“She can meet the chief minister to discuss her grievances. It is not an issue,” he said.

Amanullah refused to disclose the reasons behind her decision to quit the cabinet and party, but only hinted at her anger against the system that prevented her from functioning as per her desire.

The daughter of diplomat-turned-politician Syed Shahabuddin and wife of IAS officer Afzal Amanullah, she did not rule out the possibility of joining another political party and contest the Lok Sabha polls.

“I may inform about it soon,” she said.

A JD-U leader close to Amanullah said she may join the Aam Aadmi Party to contest the general election.

“Some senior AAP leaders approached her and asked her to join the party. She has taken a big risk by resigning from the cabinet and JD-U. It seems certain that she has made up her mind to be part of the AAP,” the leader said.

He said Amanullah was eyeing the Kishanganj parliamentary seat.

In 2009, she was keen to contest from Kishanganj as the JD-U candidate but was denied a ticket. Her father had won from the seat in the 1990s.

Amanullah said she was open to returning to social work again. She was an RTI activist before 2010.

In the 2010 assembly polls, she had won from Sahebpur Kamal, a Muslim-dominated constituency in Begusarai district.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh said at a press conference that the Delhi government had fulfilled some of its assurances to the people and on the remaining it was taking steps to fulfill them.