Ranchi: Aam Aadmi Party ( AAP ) on Saturday formally named RTI activist Dinesh Mahato as its candidate from the prestigious Jamshedpur parliamentary seat and said it is considering options to nominate candidates on a few more seats to counter BJP in Jharkhand. Mahato unsuccessfully contested from the Jamshedpur seat in the 2014 polls as an independent candidate.BJP is field sitting MP Bidyut Baran Mahto drom this seat while the mahagathbandhan is yet to name a candidate. JMM has bagged the seat in the grand alliance’s seat-sharing deal. Mahato said: “We will focus on social issues and failures of the current government.” He who secured barely 5,300 votes in last general elections leading to the forfeiture of his security money.AAP state convener Jaishankar Choudhary said: “We have decided to give the ticket to Dinesh Mahto. We fielded a candidate to stop BJP from winning the polls and we believe that the mahagathbandhan is misguided and confused in its approach to put up a strong candidate on this seat.”Choudhary said: “Mahato has been an RTI activist for 12 years, campaigning against corrupt officials. He has also been instrumental in putting several corrupt officials behind bars and retrieval of over Rs 10 crores of government funds over the years.”Choudhary said AAP is evaluating the scenario in all the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state. In 2014, AAP contested in 10 Lok Sabha seats but lost in all of them.“We will field our candidates wherever we see an opportunity. In the remaining places, we will extend support to the deserving candidates of opposition parties who can give a strong fight to BJP,” he said.

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