The party’s main focus will be on Goa, Gujarat, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.
New Delhi: After tasting a thumping electoral victory in Delhi for the second time in a row, with the aim to expand the party’s foothold across states, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is now going to contest at least six state Assembly elections next year, with its key focus in Goa, Gujarat, Punjab and Uttarakhand, party sources claimed.
The other states where AAP is going to contest Assembly elections next year include Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.
Goa, Gujarat, Punjab and Uttarakhand have been at the top of the AAP’s expansion plan due to an existing cadre base of the party in these states. Party insiders says that the AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal is seriously planning to install his party’s government in at least two of these states, while in the others it will fight to be the principal opposition party.
The AAP is closely looking at Punjab and Uttarakhand to form a government in these states, because the party believes that AAP has come out as a very strong force in Punjab and that with the Akalis being a weak opposition in Punjab, the AAP has a fair chance of installing its government this time around. For Uttarakhand, the party feels that due to the “absence” of an opposition space in the hill state, primarily “occupied’ by the Congress, and a strong anti-incumbency against the ruling BJP government in the hill state, the party has a chance to come to power in the 70-member Assembly of Uttarakhand this time around.
The AAP has already started to campaign in the hill state and posters and flags of AAP are visible across several parts of Uttarakhand. The party also claims to have inducted a significantly large number of people in its cadre for election campaigning.
For Punjab, the AAP is one of the key opposition parties in the state and has a strong cadre base in Punjab. The AAP hoped to form its government in the 2017 Assembly elections in the state, but had to return almost empty-handed.
However, sources within the AAP said that Kejriwal has been focusing very strongly on Punjab and has given his commitment to form an AAP government this time around.
Both Uttarakhand and Punjab are going to elections in the February- March next year. The AAP has appointed three-time MLA from Delhi, Jarnail Singh, as its Punjab in-charge, while for Uttarkhand Dinesh Mohaniya is handling the party’s affairs in the state.
In Goa, the party had already contested the state elections in 2017, but drew a blank. The AAP, however, believes that the party had learnt from the mistakes it made in the last Assembly elections in the state and would, therefore, enter the election fray with more confidence and vigour this time around.
Goa currently has a BJP government in power and the elections to the Goa Assembly are likely to be held in February next year.
In Gujarat, the party has gained confidence to contest all the 222 Assembly seats after AAP won some significant number of seats in the local body elections held in the state recently.
Sources in the AAP told The Sunday Guardian that Gujarat is a very “fertile” ground for AAP this time around because the people of Gujarat are looking at AAP as the alternative party that can work for the welfare of Gujaratis.
The AAP leader further added that the BJP has been in power for over two decades now and the BJP government has a huge anti-incumbency against it. “The Congress has lost relevance in Gujarat, it is nowhere near the BJP and, therefore, the only alternative is AAP. Even if AAP is not able to form government this time, given the fact that the Prime Minister is from Gujarat and this aspect could go against any party, AAP is definitely going to become the principal opposition in Gujarat,” an AAP leader told this correspondent.
AAP sources said that for Uttar Pradesh elections due in the next nine months, the AAP is yet to take a strategic decision on how the party will figure out its seats and strategy for the elections in the most politically complex state.