Arvind Kejriwal had stated last year that AAP will contest all 182 congressional seats in Gujarat.
New Delhi:
Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi party, optimistic about overwhelming victory in Punjab and foothold in Goa, is taking a second chance on Gujarat, where elections are to be held later this year. The party has scheduled a series of programs to begin tomorrow in the state, which has been ruled by the BJP since 1995.
The Delhi Chief Minister and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann have already reached Ahmedabad on a two-day visit.
Tomorrow they will visit the Sabarmati Ashram and then hold a two-kilometer roadshow, which the party calls “Tiranga Yatra”. A visit to the Swaminarayan Temple in Ahmedabad is scheduled for Sunday.
In light of the recent attack on Mr Kejriwal’s residence in Delhi, AAP’s Gujarat unit has asked the Ahmedabad police chief to take additional measures for the safety and security of the two leaders.
Mr Kejriwal had stated last year that AAP will contest all 182 congressional seats in Gujarat.
The party also performed well in the municipal elections of March last year. AAP won 42 seats — 31 seats in Taluka Panchayats, nine in municipalities and two district seats.
AAP debuted in Gujarat in the 2017 election polls but failed to win a single seat. All 29 candidates lost their deposits when the party’s most famous faces – Mr Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia – failed to show up for campaigns.
This time, Mr. Kejriwal had started an early roadshow in Surat shortly after last year’s citizen polls.
The BJP, which stepped up its campaign with a meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi a day after the election results, had stated that AAP is more of a competition for congress.
Kejriwal had hit back, citing the party’s record in Delhi, where she won just 28 seats in the first election she participated in and captured the city with 67 out of 70 seats.
In last year’s elections, AAP practically made a repeat appearance in Delhi. This year it was Punjab’s turn, where it dragged Congress, the BJP and the Akali Dal to the margins. In Goa, it opened its account with two seats in the recently concluded parliamentary elections.
