AAP to contest LS polls in four States

Party to conduct “Main Bhi Aam Aadmi” membership drive between Jan. 10 and 26

AAP leader Yogendra Yadav said on Sunday that the party has decided to contest all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi and all of the Assembly and Parliamentary seats in Haryana. It will also put up candidates on some seats in Tamil Nadu and on most Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies in Maharashtra.

Throwing open its primary membership to all citizens for free, the party’s “main bhi aam aadmi” (I too am common man) campaign — a countrywide decentralised membership drive — will be held from January 10 to 26. The membership fee of Rs. 10 has been scrapped.

The party will go into elections under the leadership of convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Mr. Kejriwal had decided not to contest Lok Sabha elections but would campaign “vigorously” for the party.

Based on the preparations on ground so far, the party plans to contest “at least 250 to 300 seats in 15 to 20 states”, although the final picture will emerge only by the end of next month. “We are testing the waters on how far we can go,” said Mr. Yadav.

He pointed out that declaring a prime ministerial candidate “pre-supposes” where the party would land in Lok Sabha polls. “Unless we can assess where we stand, it is not correct to declare a prime ministerial candidate.”

The first list of candidates will be made public between January 15 and 20. All selected candidates shall go through a public scrutiny in the run up to final selection by the Political Affairs Committee. “After a candidate for a particular constituency is finalised no more applications for that seat would be considered,” he said. The last date for applying is January 15.

A three-member national election coordination committee would take care of candidates’ selection, party manifesto, fund-raising and other aspects of elections. The party manifesto would be based on internal reports by 31 panels that were formed during Delhi elections after going into various issues.

Executive Committee member Gopal Rai said the party was running out of membership receipt books and therefore has opened the membership countrywide without any fee. The situation would be reviewed after January 26.

Election panel member Pankaj Gupta pointed out that the candidate selection committee in states will have five members including a non-AAP citizen for “objective scrutiny”.

However, the panel members admitted that the party needed more funds to contest the general elections. “We fought the Delhi elections with Rs. 20 crore. But more funds would be needed for the Lok Sabha polls.”

The leaders said they were aware of other parties sending their cadre for “proxy membership”. They issued a stern “zero tolerance” warning to any member indulging in indiscipline or any anti-social activity to bring a bad name to AAP. “Such a member would be disowned.”