The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will contest on all seats in the next year’s Gujarat Assembly polls, party chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said in Gujarat on June 14.
Kejriwal is on a one-day visit to Gujarat where he inaugurated the party’s state office in Ahmedabad. He is also expected to interact with party workers during his visit.
“Both Congress and BJP are partners in crime in Gujarat in the last 27 years. If BJP is in trouble, Congress comes forward to help them and bail them out. How will this be accepted? AAP is the honest alternative that Gujarat is awaiting,” Kejriwal told reporters during his visit.
A popular TV journalist from Gujarat Isudan Gadhvi joined AAP in presence of Kejriwal.હું ગુજરાતના જાણીતા પત્રકાર શ્રી ઇસુદાન ગઢવિજીનું આમ આદમી પાર્ટી પરિવારમાં સ્વાગત કરું છું. મને પૂરો વિશ્વાસ છે કે ઇસુદાન ભાઈએ ગુજરાત માટે જે સપનું જોયું છે તે નિશ્ચિતરૂપે ગુજરાતની જનતા સાથે મળીને પૂરું કરશે.
હવે બદલાશે ગુજરાત. pic.twitter.com/8LDIfZOoGu
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) June 14, 2021
"I welcome the well-known journalist of Gujarat, Shri Isudan Gadhviji to the Aam Aadmi Party family. I am confident that Isudan Bhai will definitely fulfill the dream he has for Gujarat together with the people of Gujarat. Now Gujarat will change," Kejriwal tweeted in Gujarati.
This is an important announcement considering AAP’s national ambitions. The BJP secured a simple majority in the 2017 Gujarat assembly polls by bagging 99 of the 182 assembly seats.
This was Kejriwal's second visit to Gujarat. He last visited Surat in February after an impressive debut in local body elections by coming second with 27 of the 120 seats.
The AAP has been trying to make inroads into Gujarat since its inception in 2013. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, AAP contested on all 26 constituencies and in the 2017 assembly elections, it fielded candidates on 29 seats. The party drew blank on both occasions.
Delhi's ruling party’s attempts to play a larger role at the national level have failed in the past, except in Punjab where it emerged as the main opposition party in the 2017 assembly polls. However, its electoral performance in the 2020 Delhi assembly polls, winning 62 out of the 70 seats and storming to power third time, has renewed the party's desire to expand its footprint beyond the national capital and Punjab.
Kejriwal had announced in January that the party will contest assembly elections in six states in the next two years.
In December last year, Kejriwal had announced that his party will also contest UP assembly polls also scheduled next year.