AAP Releases Final Candidate List; Gopal Rai Confident of Voter Support for Babarpur in Delhi Assembly Elections

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Gopal Rai expressed gratitude and confidence after being nominated again from Babarpur for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections. Speaking on Sunday, Rai stated, “I thank the party for nominating me again from Babarpur. I have faith that the people of Babarpur will give me the same mandate as last time… Last time, we replaced 22 candidates; this time, the number is much lower.”

Rai’s remarks came after AAP released its fourth and final list of 38 candidates for the Delhi Assembly Elections 2025. The list features prominent party figures, including national convenor and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal contesting from New Delhi, Chief Minister Atishi from Kalkaji, and Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj from Greater Kailash.

In addition to Gopal Rai, other candidates include Satyendra Kumar Jain from Shakur Basti, Durgesh Pathak from Rajinder Nagar, Ramesh Pehalwan from Kasturba Nagar, Raghuvinder Shokeen from Nangloi Jat, Som Dutt from Sadar Bazar, Imran Hussain from Ballimaran, and Jarnail Singh from Tilak Nagar. The list includes two new names, while the remaining 36 candidates are sitting MLAs who have been re-nominated.

Notably, Ramesh Pehalwan, a former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, and his wife Kusumlata Ramesh joined AAP on Sunday, receiving a warm welcome from Arvind Kejriwal.

Earlier, AAP released its third list of candidates, which included Tarun Yadav contesting from Najafgarh. The second list, released on December 9, saw the party drop 17 sitting MLAs, introducing new faces, although three familiar names—Manish Sisodia, Rakhi Birla, and Deepu Chaudhary—were re-nominated.

The Congress party, which previously ruled Delhi for 15 consecutive years, has struggled in the last two assembly elections, failing to secure a single seat. In the 2020 assembly elections, AAP achieved a significant victory, winning 62 out of 70 seats, while the BJP secured eight.