NEW DELHI: AAP’s Karawal Nagar candidate Durgesh Pathak has said that a lot of “big ticket” projects are needed in his assembly constituency which has “suffered” a lot under former MLA Kapil Mishra.
Pathak, the youngest member of the AAP’s Political Affairs Committee, the party’s highest decision-making body, is contesting his first election.
The 31-year-old said, “The people have been advising me not to follow in the footsteps of Kapil Mishra. They have high expectations from me. Mishra did not meet people. He was only present on Twitter.”
“Under Kapil Mishra, work suffered a lot,” Pathak said.
Mishra, a former member of the Arvind Kejriwal cabinet, was disqualified from the Assembly in August 2019. He was thereafter suspended from the party in May 2017 and had since been openly critical of the party leadership. However, he remained an MLA till he was disqualified.Mishra is now the BJP candidate from Model Town.
Pathak said he aims to develop the area by bringing “big- ticket” projects.He said Karawal Nagar is one of the remotest areas of Delhi and one of the main reasons for it is lack of major projects. “My focus will be to develop this area. Three things that I will focus on if I am elected an MLA are solving the water crisis, regularisation of small industries and improvement in the local transportation network,” he said.
The Assembly elections, which will be held on February 8, will see a triangular contest between the ruling AAP, the BJP and the Congress. The AAP has dropped 15 sitting MLAs from its list of 70 candidates and given tickets to 24 first-timers, including Pathak. In the 2015 elections, the AAP bagged 67 seats, while the BJP could manage just 3. The Congress drew a blank.
(With PTI inputs)