Aam Aadmi Party is all set to contest 50 seats for the Maharashtra Assembly polls. AAP which was once considered as serious contender to challenge BJP and Congress has lost its sheen after it won only one seat out of over 40 it contested across nine states and Union territories in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. AAP had announced that it will contest the upcoming assembly polls in Maharashtra claiming that the state government had failed on all fronts. The party’s campaign committee for Maharashtra polls will have Ranga Rachure as convenor, Kishore Mandhyan as co-convenor and Dhananjay Shinde as secretary. Senior Party leader Preeti Sharma Menon will be a member of the committee which will oversee poll preparations.
“Despite the electorate voting for change in the previous election the present Devendra Fadnavis led BJP-Shiv Sena government has been a colossal failure on all fronts. Maharashtra once known to be a progressive state is plagued with large scale drought, floods, farmer suicides, agrarian distress, rising unemployment, failing law and order, rising crime, widespread corruption, lack of service delivery, and economic slowdown,” said Durgesh Pathak state in charge of AAP, Maharashtra.
The party recorded its highest vote share in the national capital at 18.10 per cent. AAP had fielded candidates in Delhi, Chandigarh, Bihar, Goa, Punjab, Andaman and Nicobar, Haryana, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh. In 2014 AAP had won four Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, though it lost on all seats in Delhi it came second on the seven constituencies.
AAP national spokesperson Preeti Sharma Menon said, “We have fielded around 50 candidates for assembly polls. We won’t be going for alliance with any political party rather decided to go solo. We will be starting our campaign with Sanjay Singh who is our Rajya Sabha MP and national spokesperson, from day after tomorrow.”
The vote share of AAP in the nine states remained dismal. In Delhi, it got 18.10 per cent which was the highest for the party. In UP the party had 0.01 per cent vote, 0.36 per cent vote share in Haryana,7.38 per cent in Punjab, 3.02 per cent in Chandigarh, 0.06 per cent in Bihar, 1.37 per cent in Andaman and Nicobar, 3.01 per cent in Goa and 0.03 per cent in Odisha. The most humiliating loss came to AAP from Delhi where the party was expecting to win atleast four seats. Analysts believe the performance of AAP, the ruling party in Delhi, in the Lok Sabha polls might impact its prospects in assembly polls early next year. The AAP had won 67 out of 70 seats in 2015 Delhi assembly elections. The BJP had won only 3 seats while the Congress had failed to open its account.
On the other hand, AAP national joint secretary Ruben Mascarenhas said, “We will field at least 50 candidates for contesting assembly polls. The list which we are going to release will have candidates from Vidarbha, Mumbai, North Maharashtra. Talks are going on with Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi but nothing has been finalised yet.”
Meanwhile, AAP announced the name of 22 candidates for the October 21 assembly polls in Haryana. They include Ranbir Singh Rathi from Gurugram, Kumari Sumanata Vashisth from Faridabad, Santosh Yadav from Faridabad NIT, Harendra Bhati from Ballabhgadh, Yogeshwar Sharma from Panchkula, Anshul Kumar Agarwal from Ambala City. The term of the present Haryana Assembly expires on November 2 and the Election Commission has announced the polls to the 90 seats whose results will be declared on October 24.
First list of AAP Candidates for Maharashtra State Assembly Elections 2019
- Adv. Paromita Goswami- Bramhapuri Constituency, Chandrapur District of Vidarbha
- Vitthal Govind Lad –Jogeshwari East Assembly Constituency in Mumbai Suburb
- Dr Ananda Dadu Gurav –Karveer Constituency in Kolhapur District of Western Maharashtra
- Vishal Vadghule- Nandgaon Assembly Constituency in Nasik District of Northern Maharashtra
- Dr Abhijit More- Kothrud Assembly in Pune district of Western Maharashtra
- Siraj Khan- Chandivli Constituency of Mumbai Suburban region
- Dilip Tawde- Dindoshi Constituency in Mumbai Suburban region
- Sandeep Sonawane- Parvati Constituency, Pune District of Western Maharashtra
