AAP not to put up candidates for assembly polls

, April 7: With

fielding over 425 candidates across the country for the Lok Sabha elections, the party will not be in a position to contest the assembly polls in four states due to lack of resources. Odisha, Andhra Pradesh (Telangana and Seemandhra), Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh will go to polls along with General elections.

AAP has fielded candidates for the Lok Sabha elections in all these states. However, the party has not fielded candidates for assembly elections here.

"We simply don't have the resources to contest elections in the state and we had taken a well-thought decision on this issue. More importantly, if we go for the assembly elections we will tend to lose focus on the Lok Sabha polls, which the party cannot afford to do," said a senior AAP leader.

Funding is a major issue for the party as it has decided to field maximum candidates for the Lok Sabha elections. Until now it has fielded over 425 candidates and are yet to declare candidates for few seats including, Vadodara, the second seat from where Narendra Modi is contesting after Varanasi.

The party also cannot afford to spare volunteers nor its leaders as almost all top party leaders are focussing on National capital, where it has a lot at stake because of its eroding base. After Delhi, all the focus of the leaders and volunteers will turn to Varanasi and Amethi from where Arvind Kejriwal is taking on Modi and Kumar Vishwas is contesting against Rahul Gandhi respectively.

AAP: We simply don't have the resources to contest elections in the state

There will also be no time for the party leaders to focus on other states. Party sources said that although it is has been well received in states like Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, it is yet to reach a stage where it can be a player in the assembly elections.

It is yet to spread its tentacles in the Northeast states of the country. It will, however, field candidates for bye-elections in Gujarat, a state where it intends to claim the space of Congress, the main opposition party in the state.

The party, however, has pinned high hopes in Haryana and Maharashtra, which will go to polls later this year. This will give the party enough time to prepare for the Lok Sabha polls. Both these states also have a large number of AAP volunteers.

Interestingly, of the few states Kejriwal has visited for campaigning, he has spent over 2-3 days in Maharashtra, Haryana and Karnataka keeping assembly elections in mind. "We will also know our electoral strength in assemblies of different states after election. We can then field our candidates for assembly elections next time or in some states where we will have immediate elections like Maharashtra and Haryana," said a party leader.

PTI