Encouraged by “positive” feedback on its governance model in Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has now decided to try its luck in electoral battle of Uttarakhand too. The party has announced that it will contest the 2022 Uttarakhand Assembly elections.
Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday announced that the party would be fighting the 2022 Assembly elections in the mountain state. He added that it would field its candidates in all 70 seats of the state.
CM Kejriwal said, “We conducted a survey in Uttarakhand, in which 62 percent people said that we should contest elections there, then we decided that the AAP will contest in that state.”
Kejriwal further said that employment, education and health were major issues in Uttarakhand. People›s expectation from both parties (Congress and BJP) is over, he added.
The AAP has been trying to expand its presence to other states also. In Punjab, AAP had done considerably well. It got the role of opposition in the assembly there.
AAP leaders have been getting regular feedback from Uttarakhand voters, who are, according to them are unhappy with the governments not being able to do much on the development front. The AAP strategists believe this is the right time to woo the voters on the issues that cut much ice with Delhi voters. The issues obviously are health, education, water, power, employment, etc.
Uttarakhand is a state which has been dominated largely by bipolar politics, with BJP and Congress being the key players. This is the reason why both the major parties are not attaching much importance to AAP joining the fray. However, the AAP leadership says that the bipolar politics was also there in Delhi, but what happened. AAP’s presence threw both of them from the arena.
BJP leader Kuldeep Kumar said, “The Aam Aadmi Party is trying to expand its presence beyond Delhi and Punjab. Everybody knows how they are conducting surveys and trying to manipulate the people in Uttarakhand. But people here are wise and educated, and they have faith on BJP, we are sure that no policy of the AAP will work here.”
Uttarakhand Congress general secretary Naveen Joshi said, “Several parties tried to enter Uttarakhand like this. But people of Uttarakhand, who by dint of struggle got it as a separate state, would not allow AAP to succeed here. Congress is a national party and several parties tried to defeat it but they all failed. Situations in Delhi and Uttarakhand are different. Small parties cannot be successful here.”