Lucknow:
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) suffered a jolt today with its candidate Justice (retd) Fakhruddin withdrawing from the electoral fray in Uttar Pradesh's Raebareli Lok Sabha constituency where Congress president Sonia Gandhi is a candidate.
Raebareli votes on May 7, the penultimate phase in the nine-phase general election.
(See schedule here)AAP leaders confirmed that the former Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh High Court judge has recused himself from the polls.
(India Votes 2014: full coverage)Justice (retd) Fakhruddin informed the party that he would not be available for the Lok Sabha election, AAP state spokesperson Vaibhav Maheshwari told IANS.
The party has now decided to field Archana Srivastava, a social worker against Mrs Gandhi.
The AAP has fielded poet-turned-politician Kumar Vishwas against Mrs Gandhi's son and Congress vice president
Rahul Gandhi in Amethi.
BJP's candidate from Raebareli, activist and lawyer Ajay Agarwal filed his nomination papers on Monday.