AAP won't contest Gujarat bypolls; to focus on Delhi

Ahmedabad, Aug 26: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is busy expanding its support base, has ruled out contesting the upcoming by-elections for the lone Lok Sabha seat and nine assembly seats in Gujarat, saying that it is concentrating on Delhi.

"It was decided at national executive council meeting in Punjab last month that our party would not contest by-polls in four states including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, and Jharkhand," AAP care-taker and former convener in the state, Sukhdev Patel told PTI.

"We have taken this decision of not contesting the by-polls considering AAP's 'Mission Vistar' (party's movement to expand its cadre) programme. We are also focusing on Delhi Assembly as we are going to contest all the seats there," Patel said.

"We will contest all the elections after strengthening our cadre base," he said. The BJP and Congress has started naming their candidates for Lok Sabha and assembly by-polls in Gujarat. "We have decided not to contest Lok Sabha and assembly by-polls in Gujarat as we have been focusing on Delhi," the state spokesperson of AAP Harshil Nayak told PTI.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state Gujarat will see by-elections for one Lok Sabha and nine assembly seats on September 13 and results will be declared on September 16. The Gujarat by-elections will witness a close contest on Vadodara Lok Sabha constituency, which was vacated by Prime Minister Modi who had chosen Varnasi over it.

The BJP today named Deputy Mayor from Vadodara city, Ranjanben Bhatt, as the party's candidate for the seat against Congress candidate Narendra Rawat. The Assembly seats where bypolls will be held are: Anand, Limkheda (Dahod), Deesa (Banaskantha), Matar (Kheda), Maninagar (Ahmedabad), Talaja (Bhavnagar), Tankara (Rajkot), Khambhalia (Jamnagar) and Mangrol (Junagadh). The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP had opened its Lok Sabha account with four seats in Punjab.

PTI