The party hopes to win a good number of seats in the state.
NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Kerala unit is contesting in over 200 seats in the upcoming Kerala local body polls and the party is expected to perform well, said the AAP south in-charge and Malviya Nagar MLA Somnath Bharti.
During a telephonic conversation, the MLA said that the people of Kerala are not only “educationally” literate, but also “politically” literate and the party is expecting to win a good number of seats in Kerala.
He further said that based on the local body election results, the party would explore the opportunity to contest Kerala and Tamil Nadu state Assembly elections scheduled in May 2021.
The local body election in Kerala will be held in three phases beginning from 8 December, and the results will be announced on 16 December. Elaborating on the reason to contest the elections, he said that several Malayalee residents based out of Delhi came to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and requested the party to contest elections in Kerala as they wanted alternative to the Left Democratic Front (LDF) led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and United Democratic Front (UDF) led by the Congress. He added, “Both the parties are involved in corruption. Moreover, the incumbent former Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, M. Sivasankar, is involved in corruption.”
He also added that a team of five members has been sent to Kerala to assist the AAP Kerala unit in the elections and the team is helping the local cadre in organising a door-to-door campaign. They are hopeful of winning a good number of seats, he said.
He also said that the AAP has not explored the opportunity to join hands with the Kamal Haasan-led Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM). He said, “Kamal Haasanji is a very nice person. Arvind Kejriwal and I had gone to Chennai during his party launch in 2018. Based on the Kerala local bodies election results, the AAP would decide about contesting state elections in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.”
Talking about the BJP’s rise in the southern states, he said that he is sure that the people of Kerala will reject the politics of communalism and religion.
Meanwhile, AAP Uttarakhand’s in-charge Dinesh Mohaniya said that the party would win the Uttarakhand Assembly elections as the people of the state are tired of the BJP and Congress. Mohaniya said that the party would contest elections on education, power and water issues.