Delhi Polls Around the Corner, AAP May Not Contest Maharashtra, Jharkhand Elections With Full Strength

With the assembly polls in Delhi around the corner, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will keep its focus on the election in the capital and not put much strength behind the Jharkhand and Maharashtra assembly polls. Also, it is unlikely to form any alliance in these states, News18 has learnt.

The Election Commission of India on Tuesday announced the dates for the assembly polls in the two states to be held in November.

Speaking to News18, an AAP leader said there has been no official discussion among the leaders on how many seats they will contest on in these states. Also, just like Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, the party will go solo on whichever seats they contest.

“We put a lot of strength in Haryana and now Delhi will also go for polls in a few months. We want to channelise our energy in Delhi, our home state,” the party leader said, seeking anonymity.

While AAP is yet to finalise its plans for Maharashtra and Jharkhand, the party is clear that it will contest on seats where they have manpower and potential candidates. The party, the leader said, will decide in a week or so on how many seats they can contest.

In Maharashtra, AAP has a base in and around Mumbai and a few more areas. Similarly, in Jharkhand, they can contest solo in certain seats.

In both Jharkhand and Maharashtra, AAP tried its luck in 2019 as well but it was a failed attempt. In Maharashtra, of the 288 seats, AAP fought on 24 seats and 23 of these candidates lost their deposit. The party secured 57,855 votes, less than those polled for NOTA (7.42 lakh votes).

In Jharkhand, they contested on 26 of 81 seats, with all the candidates losing deposits. The party received just 35,252 votes, as against 2.05 lakh polled for NOTA. In total, 1.50 crore votes were polled in Jharkhand and 5.51 crore in Maharashtra and AAP’s share was less than one per cent.

In the recently concluded Haryana polls, AAP contested on all the 90 seats and scored zero. However, it got lucky in Jammu and Kashmir as it won the Doda assembly seat, registering a presence in five states now. Apart from governments in Delhi and Punjab, AAP has two MLAs in Goa and five in Gujarat.