Recent departures may impact AAP’S preparation for 2019

NEW DELHI: With the Lok Sabha elections less than a year months and two of its most loyal leaders having tendered their resignation, the top brass of Aam Aadmi Party is focussed on keeping the party together and campaign heavily for the 2019 general election.

The party is yet to decide two Lok Sabha prabharis, one of whom will be from New Delhi and the other from West Delhi.

AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj’s name is roaming around for the New Delhi seat, while Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot may get a ticket from West Delhi

Bharadwaj is known to be one of the most popular faces of AAP, who came to the forefront after he presented the ‘EVM tampering tricks’ in the Delhi Assembly. He is also known to be very close to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

In a statement, the AAP said that five senior leaders had been assigned separate parliamentary constituencies to “micro focus” on five parliament seats and strengthening the organisation further on the Chandni Chowk, East, North East, South and North West Delhi Lok Sabha seats.

The party sources, however, further pointed out that AAP intends to contest all seven Parliament seats, given the fact that it had “performed well in each of these” during the last Lok Sabha elections in 2014.

A week ago, Kejriwal, also the party’s national convenor, had said his party will not join the proposed Opposition alliance against the BJP for the 2019 general elections.

He said that parties who are joining the proposed alliance have had no role in the country’s development. “The AAP will not be a part of any alliance in 2019,” Kejriwal had told reporters in Rohtak.