The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has decided to contest in only one-third of the seats in Gujarat for the Assembly elections in the state to be held before 18 December. The AAP is likely to contest in around 50 seats in the 182-member Assembly. The party on Saturday put out its first list of 11 candidates. “The party has issued its first list and announcement of more candidates will be made soon,” a release quoted Gopal Rai, the party’s in-charge for Gujarat, as saying.
After the party’s humiliating defeat in Goa as well as in the Delhi Municipal polls and in Punjab—where the party had plans to form a government, but ended up as a distant second—the party had shelved its plans to contest elections in Gujarat, but, according to sources, pressure from the AAP’s Gujarat unit—which had been working on the ground for the past four years—changed the mind of the party’s central leadership, which adopted a “practical” approach to contesting the Gujarat polls and deciding on the number of seats to contest in.
According to Arsheel Naik, spokesperson of AAP’s Gujarat unit, the strong base of the party, booth level analysis and volunteer support are the criteria that the party has been looking at in the state to decide on the number of seats they should contest in the Assembly elections.
The party has also formed a 21-member core committee in the state headed by Kishor Desai, to look after the election process and the party’s campaigning in the state. Naik added that the party holds a strong base in the urban areas of Ahmedabad, Rajkot and Vadodara, and also expects some support from the rural areas surrounding these cities. “We want to give the people of Gujarat an alternative model of governance. The people of Gujarat have been failed by successive governments. While the BJP rides on the fake development model, the Congress is sinking in neck deep corruption; therefore, there is no chance of any alliance with any party. Our agenda is clear and that is to showcase the people of Gujarat, Delhi’s model of governance in healthcare, education and corruption-free governance. People in Gujarat are looking for an alternative form of governance,” Arsheel Naik told The Sunday Guardian. The state leadership is also hoping to have party supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for campaigns in the state, along with other leadership from Delhi, to showcase the “Delhi model of governance”.
The AAP’s central leadership and the state unit are also in talks with Patidar leader Hardik Patel and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani, and, as per sources, AAP is keen to cash in on the “sentiments stirred” by Patel and Mevani to make political gains.