The Aam Aadmi Party’s chief ministerial candidate in Madhya Pradesh will contest from the Bhopal (South-West) constituency in the coming Assembly elections in the State. The seat is considered a BJP stronghold.
“Alok Agrawal will contest from Bhopal Dakshin-Pashchim Assembly seat,” party’s Rajya Sabha member Sushil Gupta announced in Bhopal on Sunday. Mr. Gupta was in the State capital to attend the party’s State Lok Sabha unit meeting.
The former Narmada Bachao Andolan activist, Mr. Agrawal is an IIT-Kanpur alumnus who joined the AAP ahead of the 2014 elections. He was fielded as an AAP candidate for the Khandwa Lok Sabha seat, where he got 16,800 votes.
Since 2008, the seat is represented by Madhya Pradesh Minister Uma Shankar Gupta. In the State, the Opposition Congress is in a direct face-off with the ruling BJP government, led by Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
The party has decided to contest all the 230 Assembly seats in the State, he added. The AAP contested the Gujarat, Karnataka and Goa Assembly elections, but was unable to open its account. However, the party emerged as the second strongest party in Punjab’s 117-member Assembly.
The party won 20 Assembly seats by contesting in 112 seats, under a tacit understanding with the ruling Congress in the State.