In Sonia Gandhi's Rae Bareli, AAP's candidate Justice Fakhruddin withdraws

NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party ( AAP) candidate from Rae Bareli Justice Fakhruddin pulled out from the race at the last moment forcing the party to field a new face on Tuesday, just a day ahead of the last date of filing nominations.

AAP worker and social activist Archana Srivastav will now contest against Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Rae Bareli goes to poll on April 30.

Srivastav, who has been associated with the party since its inception, was initially among the front runners for this seat, but Fakhruddin’s credentials tipped the balance in his favour. A judge of the Madhya Pradesh High court for 12 years, Justice Fakhruddin was also its acting chief Justice for some time. He has also been a member of the Bar Council of MP for almost 20 years His candidature was announced on April 3, the same day Gandhi filed her nomination from this seat.

AAP members familiar with the candidate selection process told ET that the former judge expressed his apprehension about contesting Lok Sabha elections a day after his name was announced.

“He realized that his name was enrolled in the Jabalpur voters’ list as well as in the Jungpura constituency in New Delhi. Although he applied to the EC to delete his name from the Jabalpur list, he was informed that this cannot be done once the filing of nominations has begun. Justice Fakhruddin felt that this could create problems for his campaign and could also be used to malign the party. We tried assuring him that he was not in the wrong as he had applied for deletion, but he did not want to leave anything to chance and withdrew his name,” said a senior AAP leader, who did not wish to be identified.

“He continues to remain associated with the party and has offered to campaign for Archana Srivastav in Rae Bareli,” the leader added. Justice Fakhruddin could not be reached for a comment.