AAP will contest all seats in 2022 Gujarat polls, says Kejriwal
AHMEDABAD: Aam Aadmi Party supremo and Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, on Monday said his party will contest all 182 seats in Gujarat in the 2022 Assembly elections.
“The AAP will contest each and every seat in the 2022 Gujarat Assembly elections... We will emerge as alternative to BJP in Gujarat. BJP and Congress are two sides of the same coin and I hear that the Opposition party is in the BJP’S pockets,” said Kejriwal, who was on a one-day visit to Ahmedabad to inaugurate the AAP’S state headquarters.
“Gujarat is suffering because of this friendship and alliance between the BJP and the Congress. The BJP ruled this state for the last 27 years. I heard people saying that Congress is in the pocket of the BJP. Both the BJP and Congress are the same. This must stop,” he added.
After his media briefing, Kejriwal formally inaugurated the AAP’S office also located on Ashram Road.
This was Kejriwal’s second visit to Gujarat this year. He last visited Surat in February, after the AAP’S encouraging performance in the city’s municipal corporation elections. In its debut performance, the AAP emerged as the main opposition to the BJP in the city, winning 27 seats in the 120-member Surat Municipal Corporation and leaving the Congress with zero seats.
Asked if their campaign would be based on the Delhi model, he said, “Every state has its own problems and aspirations and so Gujarat will have a Gujarat model.”
Earlier in the day, former head of a Gujarati news channel, Isudan Gadhvi, joined the AAP in the presence of Kejriwal.
Hitting back at the AAP, state BJP spokesperson Yamal Vyas said, “Through the last six elections, we have restricted the Congress to 50 to 60 seats and haven’t allowed them to grow. We don’t need anybody, BJP is a strong force in Gujarat.”
“Several parties earlier have contested on all 182 seats but have miserably failed, including those started by Shankersinh Vaghela, Keshubhai Patel or others. Vaghela’s party won 4 seats in 1998. So, let AAP also contest,” he added.
Political analyst Hari Desai said the party was new to Gujarat politics. “AAP will, at best, serve the purpose of queering the pitch for the Congress on some seats where it may be doing well against the BJP.”