A 15-member team from the Gujarat unit of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will come here on Tuesday with a proposal to contest the upcoming Assembly elections due in the state sometime later this year.
The team will comprise all the seven zonal in-charges of the state, along with other senior leaders from the state. They will be meeting AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and other members of the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) here, to chalk out strategies and take a final nod and “go-ahead” for their electoral preparations in Gujarat.
Kanubhai Kalsariya, a senior leader of AAP’s Gujarat unit and Saurashtra zonal in-charge, told The Sunday Guardian, “We will be coming to Delhi to speak to our leadership in Delhi and also seek a go-ahead from the PAC for preparations that need to be done in the state to contest an election, as the time for the polls is drawing near. We have a draft proposal and plan in place which we will present before the PAC members and Arvind Kejriwal for their approval.”
The AAP unit of Gujarat, which claims to have a membership of over three lakh volunteers in the state, is also conducting a survey about the acceptability of the party in all the 182 Assembly constituencies in the state. The survey will be presented before the PAC here.
The leaders from Gujarat will also be discussing issues like finances and candidate selection procedure for the election with the senior leaders here.
“We are almost 50% ready with our preparations in the state, but an election requires much more than that. We will discuss about finances and candidate selection with our Delhi leadership as we are a team and will work under their advice,” Kalsariya added.
According to sources in AAP’s Gujarat unit, the party has the support of Hardik Patel, who rose to fame with his Patidar movement last year and is believed to have immense support from the Patidar community in the state.
A senior leader who did not wish to be named said: “Our leaders have met Hardik Patel several times; even our leaders in Delhi are in talks with Hardik Patel and he is in favour of the AAP and will likely support us in the election. But the picture would be clear once the campaigning picks up in the state.”
However, the Delhi unit of AAP is not keen on contesting the Gujarat elections, especially after the drubbing faced by the party in both the Punjab Assembly and Delhi municipal elections.
But sources in Delhi AAP have hinted at the possibility of the party being “flexible” about taking a decision on contesting the Gujarat polls. The Delhi unit of AAP is currently waiting for the Gujarat unit to come to Delhi with its survey report and proposals for the elections after which a formal announcement on the decision would be made by AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, who is then likely to travel to Ahmedabad and make an announcement from there.