‘Grand’ rallies in Rajasthan, M.P., Chhattisgarh to kick start AAP’s campaign for Assembly polls

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is going to hold grand rallies and roadshows in Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to kick start its campaign for the next year’s Lok Sabha election as well as the upcoming Assembly polls in the four States, a senior office-bearer said on Tuesday.

A roadshow will be organised in Haryana ahead of the party’s June 11 ‘maha’ (grand) rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan against the Centre’s ordinance on control over the services department, while ‘mega’ rallies in the other three States will be held later in June, a senior AAP leader said at an interaction with reporters. The events will be attended by AAP convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, among other leaders, he added.

He said the ordinance will set the tone of the rallies, but the main theme will be the upcoming polls. The party has yet to announce the dates officially.

While Rajasthan, M.P., and Chhattisgarh will go to the polls at the end of this year, Assembly election in Haryana will take place shortly after the Lok Sabha poll next year.

The leader said that the party will contest the Assembly elections in these States with its full strength and claimed that AAP had made inroads in the rural areas of the four States.

“We have done enough groundwork in these States, penetrated all the way into the villages and are currently working to build organisation. After the rallies and roadshows in June by Arvind ji and other senior leaders, we will begin our full-fledged campaigning from July through ground-level events to connect with people,” he said.

The AAP leader said that the party will mainly focus on existing issues in the States such as corruption. “We are going into the elections in a short period of time so it will confuse the public if we try to create new agendas,” he added.

When asked why the party was focusing on these four States majorly, the leader said, “We had conducted a survey in various States about six months ago on the unpopularity of their governments and found that we have opportunities in these States.”

Talking about AAP’s plans for the Lok Sabha elections, the leader said that the party will contest on all seats.

“At this point, I believe we will fight on all seats. Apart from Delhi, Punjab and Gujarat, we will also go all out in these four States,” he said.

The leader also claimed that the AAP will do a clean sweep of the Punjab Lok Sabha seats.

“If we can pull of Jalandhar (AAP’s recent win in Lok Sabha seat bypoll), I can tell you with confidence that will make it 13-0 in Punjab. We will also get 2-3 seats in Gujarat and Rajasthan each, while we will do good in the Gwalior and Rewa belts of M.P.,” he said.

The leader, however, did not sound very confident about the party’s prospects on the seven seats of Delhi. “We are not sure about how many seats we will get here but we will definitely break the BJP’s streak of 7-0 here,” he said.

When asked if AAP will consider a pre-poll alliance for the Lok Sabha or the Assembly polls, the leader said that it was too early to comment on the matter and that things will be clearer in a few months.

Mr. Kejriwal is currently touring the country to meet various Opposition leaders in his efforts to garner support against the Centre’s ordinance, which overturned the recent Supreme Court judgment giving control of services to the AAP government.