Rajdeep Sardesai to be AAP's CM candidate for Goa?

Panaji, May 24: With less than a year to go before the Goa Assembly election, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) might have decided to field veteran journalist Rajdeep Sardesai as its chief ministerial candidate for the state.

Sardesai, one of India's celebrated TV anchors, is currently working as the consulting editor with the India Today Group.

Though the AAP did not make any formal announcement about Sardesai's nomination, but the fact that the latter was present at an AAP rally in Panaji on May 22 stoked speculation.

AAP convenor and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said at the rally that his party would contest in all 40 seats of the state Assembly. [Shift in Indian politics: Congress, Left out; BJP, AAP in]

Sources in the AAP said discussions were underway though the final decision was yet to be taken. While speaking to The Navhind Times, the journalist though denied it but also said that if the people of Goa asks him to become the chief minister of the state, he is ready for it.

Fifty-one-year-old Sardesai, who born in Gujarat but brought up in Maharashtra and has worked mostly in Delhi, identifies himself as a half-Goan. His father, the late national cricketer Dilip Sardesai, was born in Goa. Sardesai says he has been Goan by heart always.

Sardesai also posted a series of tweets on Goa on Sunday and Monday, bringing to the fore various issues related to the small coastal state. He is known for his locking horns with right-wing supporters on Twitter. Recently, Sardesai had quit the micro-blog over a similar tiff to rejoin later.

The AAP has a number of former journalists in its ranks. Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, party's spokesman Ashutosh and Delhi Dialogue Commission chief Ashish Khetan are to name a few. Former AAP member Shazia Ilmi, who left the party in 2014 to join the BJP, is also a former journalist.

Oneindia News