Kejriwal Led AAP Plans To Contest Assembly Elections In Four States

The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) continues to try and expand its footprint as it will contest four assembly elections in the coming couple of years.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led party will be competing in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Goa and it has also kicked off its preparations in states like Bihar and Gujarat.

Party leaders like Raghav Chaddha and Atishi Marlena have been given the responsibilities for Punjab and Gujarat respectively, reports Economic Times.

It should be noted that Punjab is the only state after Delhi in which AAP has managed to considerably spread its influence. The party won 20 assembly seats in the 2017 legislative polls; however, multiple exit polls had predicted a much better outcome for the party. They contested 29 seats in the Gujarat assembly polls the same year and all their candidates lost their deposits.

AAP has also started to prepare plans for the 2022 Uttarakhand elections in recent times. Dinesh Mohaniya, MLA from Sangam Vihar constituency in Delhi, has been made in-charge for the state and he will visit 10 places in Uttarakhand this month.

With BJP having swept 57 out of the 70 seats in the assembly in 2017, Kejriwal’s men will have their task cut out in the ‘Devbhoomi’. They have devised a strategy to popularise the Delhi model of the ‘AAP government’ in the hill state.

AAP had similarly talked up their prospects ahead of the Goa assembly polls in 2017 but failed to bag a single seat eventually. Kejriwal has personally stressed on competing in the Uttar Pradesh (UP) elections in 2022. The party has appointed in-charges in 65 districts in UP and will be contesting the panchayat elections in the CM Yogi Adityanath-led state.

AAP’s grand expansion plans come at the back of their dismal performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. They had fielded 40 candidates across nine states and union territories, namely: Delhi, Bihar, Goa, Punjab, Chandigarh, Odisha, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Andaman and Nicobar. However, the party emerged victorious in only a single constituency as Bhagwat Mann won the Sangrur seat in Punjab.

In their home state of Delhi, AAP finished third in five constituencies in a three-cornered fight with the BJP and the Congress. The party will look to flare up issues related to health, school, electricity and water as it hopes to replicate its success from Delhi in other states across India.