Lucknow : Javed Jaffri, the television actor made famous by the children’s dance reality show Boogie Woogie, will be the Aam Aadmi party candidate from Lucknow.
Jaffri’s name was the only one from UP among 22 announced on Monday in the party’s 13th list for the Lok Sabha election. With this list, the total number of candidates declared by AAP so has gone up to 407.
Till Monday afternoon, speculation was rife in Lucknow that Adarsh Shastri, the grandson of late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, might be named the AAP candidate as, sources said, Jaffri was reluctant to contest.
Adarsh, who had quit a senior level job in Apple Inc to join AAP, had arrived in Lucknow earlier on Monday. His father Anil Shastri continues to be with the Congress.
In his press conference, Adarsh, who is convenor of AAP’s manifesto drafting committee, said that the party was seeking the views of the people to give the manifesto a final shape. Asked about his own candidature from Lucknow, he had said that the party’s political affairs committee (PAC) would make the announcement within a day or two.
Adarsh said that the party will seek the people’s opinion on a range of issues such as the Jan Lokpal, cleansing of politics, women empowerment, agriculture policy, electricity, water supply and roads. “All the viewpoints will be included in the party manifesto,” he added.
The national president of the BJP Rajnath Singh, former UP Congress president and present MLA from Lucknow Cantonment Rita Bahuguna Joshi, former minister and BSP leader Nakul Dubey and present minister and SP leader Abhishek Mishra are the other candidates in the fray from Lucknow.
Son of veteran film actor Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed Jaffrey, better known as Jagdeep, Javed has no particular link with Lucknow and has visited the city only a few times for the promotion of his TV shows.
Jaffri will be the only Muslim candidate from a major political party in the fray. In Lucknow, Muslims constitute about 20 per cent of the 13.50 lakh voters. The seat has been represented by the BJP since 1991 and four times by the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Ratan Mani Lal
