Second list of AAP candidates to be announced

NEW DELHI: The second list of candidates of the Aam Aadmi Party for the upcoming Delhi assembly elections is likely to be released by the month end after its leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia return from a Vipassana retreat later this week.

The former Delhi Chief Minister is on Vipassana retreat and is expected to return on November 24 while another senior party leader Manish Sisodia is expected to be back on Thursday.

Party sources said the second list of candidates is almost ready, but will be approved by Kejriwal after his return. The party has already declared its first list of 22 candidates last week, which included four former ministers and 12 sitting MLAs in AAP's 49-day government.

The second list may have all names, except Kejriwal's, which will be proposed by all the candidates shortlisted by the party.

"The second list is ready, but we are waiting for Arvind (Kejriwal) to return. By then Manish (Sisodia) would also be back. After a final thought and approval from Kejriwal, the party will declare its candidates," said a party leader.

The former IRS officer is known for his Vipassana retreats before or after hectic election campaigns. Just after the assembly elections last year, he left Delhi for vipassana on polling day of the Delhi assembly only to return on December 7.

After the hectic Lok Sabha election campaign, in which he took on Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi, he went on a Vipassana retreat. Kejriwal also practised vipassana in Tihar jail when a local court sent him to judicial custody after he refused to furnish bond.

Even Sisodia, his close friend and party associate, is known to practise vipassana.