AAP declares that it will fight general elections with full might but is not yet clear about PM candidate.
After proving its mettle in Delhi Assembly elections, the Aam Aadmi Party took a step ahead and announced contesting other state elections. But this time, it has took a step ahead to give shape to its national ambitions by announcing the expected – contesting 2014 loksabha elections.
The decision was announced after the member of the AAP national executive met at Delhi’s Constituton Club on Saturday. The party announced it will contest the “maximum number of seats” in the April-May Lok Sabha polls and most of its candidates are expected to be declared within two weeks.
Party leader Prashant Bhushan said AAP would field candidates in maximum number of states wherever “we have a reasonable (party) structure and get good candidates. We talked to our convenors. There is huge enthusiasm for the party in every state… We will try to declare the list of maximum candidates by mid-February or latest by the end of the month,” he said.
Bhushan said once all nomination forms were received from the constituencies, they would be scrutinised by the parliamentary affairs committee and the best candidate would be fielded.
However, there is still ambiguity over the name of the prospective candidate for being their prime ministerial candidate. The name of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has been doing rounds but till now AAP is denying it.
Bhushan told media in the same press conference that he (Kejriwal) was the leader of the party but name of prime ministerial candidate had not been decided. “It does not hold importance to us who will be our PM candidate,” he said.
Earlier, AAP leader Yogendra Yadav has proposed Kejriwal’s name and said that he would like to see him become the prime minister of the country. But he changed his voice and gave a weighed statement after the meeting.
“People should get a third option to vote apart from (Congress vice president) Rahul Gandhi, and (Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate) Narendra Modi,” he had said, adding the meet was to determine the party’s stand on the general elections and if they can give the third option.
The party wanted Kejriwal to be the prime ministerial candidate from AAP, he added.
Party leader Sanjay Singh, who addressed media along with Bhushan, said that the first list of AAP candidates was expected to be out in 10 to 15 days. He said that the decision to enter the Lok Sabha battle had nothing to do with other political parties.
“We have made it clear that we have no alliance with the Congress in Delhi. We are not fighting elections to harm or benefit anyone,” he said.
Sanjay Singh added that it made no difference whether the AAP decision harmed or benefited Modi or Rahul Gandhi.
“This is a initiative to bring the aam aadmi into power, as the other political parties have not shown an interest in working for the common people, despite being elected by them,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kejriwal said he will not fight general elections and made it clear that he wanted toremain chief minister of Delhi.
“I am not contesting the Lok Sabha elections,” Kejriwal told media persons, adding that Yadav had made the remarks out of love for him.
Kejriwal and other senior leaders attended the meeting of the AAP’s national executive that will end Sunday.
AAP’s induction drive, which started on December 25, has seen the membership numbers of the party driving in every nook and corner of the country. The party plans to contest on all seats of Gujarat, Haryana, Maharshtra, Karnataka, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. The party is also trying to find good faces for Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar.
Many famous faces have been joining the party including from the corporate world. But there is not a single face that will stand out.
AAP had approached Infosys founder NR Narayan Murthy to join their team and it was rumoured that he will be the PM face of the party. But Murthy declined the offer although he admires the party a lot.
With that, we guess it will really be a mystery till AAP ends it.
