Haryana assembly polls: AAP plans to go solo and will contest all 90 seats

Chandigarh, Jul 18 (PTI) The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday said it will contest all 90 assembly seats in Haryana, where people want "badlav" (change) and are looking at it with great hope.

The AAP said it will announce party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal's guarantees on July 20.

The Haryana Assembly elections are due later this year.

Addressing the media here, Sanjay Singh said the AAP will fight the Haryana Assembly polls strongly.

"The AAP will contest all 90 seats," said the Rajya Sabha MP, who was flanked by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, senior AAP leaders Sandeep Pathak and Anurag Dhanda, and party state unit president Sushil Gupta.

Though the AAP has contested multiple elections in Haryana, it has yet to taste electoral success.

The AAP had contested the recent Lok Sabha elections in alliance with its INDIA bloc partner Congress. While the Congress won five of the nine Lok Sabha seats it contested, the AAP unsuccessfully contested the Kurukshetra seat.

Haryana Congress leaders, including Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Udai Bhan, have hinted that the party might go solo in the assembly polls, with both saying that it is capable of contesting all 90 seats on its own.

Singh targeted the BJP government in Haryana over the issues of unemployment, law and order, and the Agnipath scheme.

"Today, there is an industry of extortion in Haryana. We saw how farmers were crushed during their agitation. Unemployment is also a big problem in Haryana," he said.

Terming the Agnipath scheme an "insult to the Army", he said, "Will the Army run on contract?" The scheme should be rolled back and the AAP will raise this issue ahead of the polls.

The Centre announced the Agnipath scheme in 2022. It provides for recruiting youths between the age bracket of 17-and-half years and 21 for four years with a provision to retain 25 per cent of them for 15 more years. These recruits are called Agniveers.

Singh further said, "In Haryana, they replaced (former chief minister) Manohar Lal Khattar with Nayab Singh Saini. But people are wise, they will not be fooled and will give them (BJP) a reply in the polls." Sandeep Pathak, who is the AAP's national general secretary (organisation), asserted that the AAP will come to power in Haryana.

"If anyone has any doubt about how the AAP will fight the Haryana polls, I want to make it clear once and for all that we will fight the upcoming elections in such a manner that the world will see. We will contest all seats and form the government," he said.

He said the AAP held "Badlav Jansamvad" meetings in 6,500 villages and in these meetings, people talked of only one thing -- change.

"On July 20, we will hold a town hall meeting in which Kejriwal's guarantees will be announced," Pathak said.

Asked if the AAP will fight the Haryana polls in alliance with its INDIA bloc partners, he said, "We will contest all 90 seats." Chief Minister Mann said during AAP leaders' visits to different parts of Haryana like Rohtak, Sonipat and Jind, people said they wanted "badlav" in the state.

Haryana gave chances to the Congress, the BJP and regional parties but all of them looted the state, he alleged.

People want change and are looking at the AAP with great hope, he said.

Mann said the AAP will contest the assembly polls strongly and "Badlenge Haryana Ka Haal, Ab Layenge Kejriwal" will be its slogan.

The AAP is a national party and also the fastest growing party, he said.

"We have governments in Delhi and Punjab. One half of Haryana touches Delhi and the other half touches Punjab while half of Haryana also speaks Punjabi.

"Ten years ago, no one had imagined that the AAP would register a landslide win in Punjab and form the government on its own, but that became a reality. Now, the party will fight the Haryana polls with the same spirit and energy," he added.

Mann, whose wife Gurpreet Kaur hails from Haryana's Kurukshetra district, said people of Punjab and Haryana have relatives in both states while some districts of the two states share boundaries.

Arvind Kejriwal belongs to Haryana and he changed the country's politics, he said. PTI