AAP leader Atishi at the community event in Delhi | Photo Credit: Times Now

New Delhi: As the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) gears up for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in 2019, the party appears to be planning on wooing voters based on caste and community. AAP leader Atishi, who was asked to drop her surname ‘Marlena’ recently, has now officially become ‘Atishi Singh’ in the run-up to the polls. At a recent event in Delhi, all posters and banners of the AAP carried her surname as ‘Singh’.

Interestingly, this is not the first that Aam Aadmi Party has undertaken changing names of its leaders ahead of the elections. Earlier, former AAP leader Ashutosh, who usually goes by his first name, had become Ashutosh Gupta during 2014. Meanwhile, Atishi’s apparent name change was reflected during an event organised by the Kshatriya community where she was referred as ‘Atishi Singh’.

Atishi attended the event - Kshatriya Vichaar Manch Mandawali’s 26th annual shastra puja – on Sunday on the occasion of Vijayadashmi, where she was the special guest. She was clicked posing with ceremonial sword at the function, which was also attended by AAP leader and Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia as the chief guest of the event.

​

Posters and banners, as well as the backdrop for the event referred Atishi as ‘Atishi Singh’. Notably, the AAP leader’s supposed ‘name change’ has taken place after she was appointed as the Aam Aadmi Party’s in-charge for the East Delhi Lok Sabha seat in June. She is likely to be nominated as the AAP’s candidate for the East Delhi constituency, as per reports.

Atishi had decided to drop her last name ‘Marlena’ in August, ostensibly to counter alleged ‘rumours’ that claimed that she was a Christian or a foreigner. Both AAP and Atishi had denied that the move had been undertaken in view of ‘caste’ considerations.

Atishi’s original last name is Singh. The surname ‘Marlena’ was given to Atishi by her parents, who were Leftists, in reference to Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. After she decided to drop her second name from all official communications of the party, the AAP’s website had changed her name to Atishi and her Twitter handle was also changed from @AtishiMarlena to @AtishiAAP.

