No alliance for AAP in Punjab

Chandigarh, April 11 (IANS) The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will not have an alliance with any political party in Punjab, a senior leader said on Thursday.

"The core committee of the party (Punjab unit) has already conveyed its view to the high command against any poll pact with any party in the state," Punjab AAP unit Campaign Committee Chairman and legislator Aman Arora told the media here.

Arora said an alliance with the Congress party in Delhi was a "distant possibility".

The AAP was exploring the possibility of an alliance earlier with the ruling Congress or the newly formed Shiromani Akali Dal (Taksali), a new party floated by a faction of breakaway leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal.

Arora said that Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and in-charge Punjab AAP affairs Manish Sisodia will sound launch the election campaign on April 15 from Sangrur parliamentary constituency.

The AAP won four Lok Sabha seats in Punjab in 2014.

Two of these MPs, Dharam Vira Gandhi (Patiala) and Harinder Singh Khalsa (Fatehgarh Sahib), were suspended from the AAP in May 2015 for "anti party activities".

Arora said that the party had cut out a road map for the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha election.

The AAP is contesting from all 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

Regarding a recent letter from AAP Punjab unit chief and Sagrur MP Bhagwant Mann to people regarding giving up his habit of consuming alcohol, Arora clarified that "Mann had to take this decision in the interest of the public and silence his detractors in the Congress and Akali Dal who had been hell-bent on maligning his public image by mounting a relentless vilification campaign.

"Instead of resorting to target their adversary to earn cheap publicity, they should have focused on people-centric issues like agrarian crisis, suicides by farmers and farmhands, unemployment, drugs, education, health services, mafia 'raj'," Arora said.