AAP to contest Gujarat Assembly polls

Ahmedabad, Sep 2 (IANS) The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday announced that it will contest the Assembly elections in Gujarat.

The announcement was made by senior AAP leader Gopal Rai in Ahmedabad.

"The BJP has ruled the state for many years but failed to fulfil the aspirations of the people of Gujarat. The Congress is in complete disarray. The people of Gujarat want an alternative, which the Aam Aadmi Party will provide," Rai, party in-charge of Gujarat, said.

The announcement by the AAP comes on the heels of its victory in the Bawana Assembly by-polls in Delhi, in which the party candidate trounced the BJP nominee, who was an AAP turncoat, by a huge margin of over 24,000 votes.

The Aam Aadmi Party had gone into hibernation after its electoral defeats in Punjab and Goa early this year.

Rai said the AAP will contest on seats where it has an organisational base, and it would get "clean" candidates to fight on the party symbol.

The AAP slogan will be "Gujarat Ka Sankalp, AAP hee khara vikalp" (AAP is the true alternative for Gujarat). The party has already set up a committee to receive and scrutinise applications from aspirants.

AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had visited the state and held massive rallies post the Patel agitation and the Una incident where Dalit youth were publicly flogged by cow vigilantes last year.

The Bawana by-election victory appears to have convinced the party top brass to try its luck in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state. Another factor in its favour could be that the state Congress party is in complete disarray with a vertical split organised by rebel leader Shankersinh Vaghela.