1. Raju Dhingan (41) – Trilokpuri
"I was the personal trainer for the President of India's optometrist," he beams. "There were so many other doctors and experts in South Delhi who chose me as their trainer". Before Raju Dhingan was elected the MLA of the AAP from Trilokpuri in the 2013, he earned his livelihood as a gym trainer for young boys who lived in and around his house in Trilokpuri, besides working as a personal physical instructor for several individual clients across the capital. His wife was, at that time, a daily wage labourer. "Trilokpuri was and is still very underdeveloped. We didn't have any facilities, let alone a gym. So we used the TV room built by DDA as a health and fitness centre.” He decided to join politics in order to better his and the life of several who lived in his constituency. "After I became an MLA, until the Vidhan Sabha dissolved in November 2014, I received a salary of 53,000. With this I was able to sustain my family, pay a small salary to party workers and also run my party office. My wife didn't have to labour anymore." Dhingan says that the AAPs campaign in Trilokpuri was not merely a 15 day or a month long event, but one that had been on for two years, focused primarily on addressing the civic needs of the residents. "I had to give up gyming in 2013 because of party work. Now I will resume it, because it is important for me to stay fit in order to work for my people," he says with all earnestness.
2. Pramila Tokas (37) – R.K Puram
A veil over her head, with vermillion on her forehead, in a bright blue salwar and a broad grin, her photo takes up the front page of her website - pramiladheerajtokas.com. The sitting BSP Councillor of the 166 ward in Munirka, she began the website to interact directly with residents. The website, however, has a full page dedicated to her husband, Dheeraj Kumar Tokas, who contested for the 2013 elections with a BSP ticket. He proclaims himself as a business magnet who is the founder and director of three infrastructure and real estate companies. With declared assets of Rs 87 crore, Pramila Tokas is the richest women candidate of the AAP to become the MLA from south Delhi's R.K Puram constituency. "After seeing my work in the constituency, I was called by Kejriwalji to accept a ticket from this constituency this year," she says. The seat reserved for women, she says it was her family, primarily her husband, who nudged her to stand for the election for the councilor's post. Dheeraj Tokas, on his part, is ready to field all questions put to his wife, even as she seeks his help to answer them. Having joined the party only recently, both husband and wife have been accused in an FIR, of assaulting a scheduled caste woman. Dheeraj Tokas was also one of the men to call a Khap Panchayat in Munirka, which ordered the eviction of North-Eastern tenants from the area after the rape of a minor Manipuri girl, residing in Munirka.
3. Surender Singh (36) - Delhi Cantt
After having served the Army for 14 years, suffering hearing loss on account of shooting terrorists during the 9/11 attacks as a part of the NSG, and being forced to retire from his services due to this handicap, it took Surender Singh nearly two years to receive the benefits that were due to him. When he did finally receive them in 2012, it was only because of Kejriwal's intervention, he says. Post his retirement, at 35, he ensured that he completed his B.A from Sikkim University. A reluctant politician, he joined the party after receiving Kejriwal's help and realising the relevance of politics in everyday life. That year, he secured an unexpected victory over the three-time BJP MLA in the Delhi Cantonment constituency, Karan Singh Tanwar. This second time was an expected, easier victory for Singh.
4. Prakash Jarwal (26) - Deoli
"When I was not even 25, I went to jail for nearly 10 days. People in my constituency knew that I did that for them and this time Deoli voted for me with a much greater majority," says Prakash Jarwal, the youngest MLA in the Delhi Legislative Assembly. While the FIR against him in the local police station accuses him of assaulting a junior engineer of the Delhi Jal Board, he hastily dismisses the allegation. "Water is one of the major issues in our area. I was trying to ensure that a pipeline is made and everyone has access to water, while the Jal Board authorities were trying to stall the process." He has been booked under Section 186 (Obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 332 (Voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty) and 353 (Assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the Indian Penal Code. An assistant manager in a multi-national company until 2013, he was leaving for work one morning when the Anna a andolan was holding a protest march in his colony. Having taken the day off to join the aandolan, Prakash quit his job two months after receiving a ticket to contest for the elections from Deoli. Within two years, the second time MLA has increased his vote share by 32,000 votes.
5. S.K Bagga (60) – Krishna Nagar
The entire country had its eye on the Krishna Nagar constituency, a BJP stronghold, from where the party's chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi was contesting. Little, however, has been said about her opponent from the AAP, S. K Bagga, who won from the constituency. Previously a member of the Congress Party, Bagga joined the AAP only in 2014. Until then, he had served as a member of the Indian National Congress for 38 years. "The Congress Party is very corrupt and doesn't care about its volunteers or party workers. AAP, for me, is a platform to undertake social service." A practicing advocate with an M.Com LLB, Bagga has been a resident of Krishna Nagar for 40 years. "Almost everyone here knows me by name, unlike Kiran Bedi who was suddenly parachuted into the constituency and given a ticket from here. I think that worked to my advantage."
6. Kartar Singh Tanwar (52) – Chhatarpur
He belongs to a family of Jat famers and the assets he has declared before the Election Commission of India amount to Rs.154 crore. Formerly a BJP member, he has been the municipal council chairman from the Bhati ward (number 176) in Chhatarpur since 2007. His website announces him as a man who 'effortless wears the many hats of a farmer, engineer and social servant'. From a junior engineer in the Delhi Jal Baord until 2005, Tanwar is now reportedly a man worth Rs.1000 crore with strong connections in the building mafia in villages around the city. He is also implicated in property disputes and complaints have been filed against him by the CVC, Lokayukta and the CBI. The AAP fielded him for the legislative assembly elections from the Chhatarpur constituency this year, much to the ire of senior party leaders including Prashant Bhushan.
7. Sarita Singh (28) – Rohtas Nagar
"AAP is a political revolution, it's not just a party," she says, on the way to a rally, full with energy. Daughter of an agricultural businessman in a small town in Uttar Pradesh, with a double master's – one in political science and the other in sociology – from Delhi University, she is palpably angry on being asked why she thinks she is an aam aadmi. "You don't have to be poor or on the street to be an aam aadmi. Anyone who wants change, promotes honesty and wants to eradicate corruption is also an aam aadmi. Of course I am an aam aadmi and I have been working for some betterment in the lives of those living in this part, the north-east of Delhi, where no development has reached and people struggle to merely exist." After completing her second masters, she was preparing for the civil services examinations when she was introduced to the Anna Hazare movement. Like many in the party, politics happened by default when she joined the AAP from its inception, with the idea that politics is an equally efficient, or better, institution than the UPSC to serve people and put an end to corruption.
8. Rakhi Birla (27) – Mangolpuri
She was an internee with the Jain TV when she was asked to cover to the Anna Hazare movement for the channel. It was this first encounter with the movement that kept her glued to the cause of an India without corruption, which eventually drew her to the party. After being given the ticket to contest from Mangolpuri by the AAP in August 2012, she quit her job with the channel in September that year. Soon she was campaigning fulltime and undertaking party work in her constituency. She was made the cabinet minister of Women & Child, Social Welfare and Languages in the Delhi Government during the 49 days when the AAP was in power.
9. Sahi Ram Pehalwan (53) – Tuglakabad
He is one among the 'dirty dozen', the 12 candidates named by senior AAP leader Prashant Bhushan, to have been fielded by the AAP for the election from other political parties allegedly to ensure the party's victory by exercising their clout. Formerly a BSP member, Sahi Ram Pehalwan, had apparently used his muscle men to prevent candidates of the Congress and BJP from even campaigning in his Tughlakabad constituency. Far from having a clean record, he has at least three FIRs registered against him and he has been accessed by different sections of the media. Among charges filed against him are those related to voluntarily causing hurt to deter a public servant from his duty (IPC sec 332), house-trespassing to commit an offence (IPC section 451) and that of criminal intimidation (IPC sec 506).
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