Voting For Congress Means Helping BJP Form Its Govt: AAP Cautions Electors
With assembly polls in five states around the corner, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has gone all out against its rivals, exhorting electors not to vote for the Congress as their votes for the grand-old party would only help BJP win the elections and form its government in states.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has appealed to the electors to support AAP national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s “honest politics” and vote for his party in the upcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Goa.
“It is my appeal to the people of Punjab and those in other states…. casting even a single vote for the Congress would mean voting for the BJP. Today, it has been proved that voting for the Congress means forming a BJP government,” Sisodia said in a statement on Wednesday.
People in Punjab saw how voting for the Congress in the recent Chandigarh municipal polls turned out to benefit the BJP, he said.
The BJP municipal councillor Sarabjit Kaur on Saturday became the new Chandigarh Municipal Corporation mayor, defeating the APP’s Anju Katyal by just one vote in a direct contest.
“The people of Chandigarh had defeated the BJP very badly, but made a mistake by voting for the Congress. People have also seen what happened in Uttarakhand and Goa also (in past)….Voting for the Congress means forming the government of the BJP,” Sisodia said.
The AAP had emerged as the leading party wining 14 out of 35 wards in the Chandigarh municipal elections results of which were announced on December 27 last year.
The BJP had won 12, the Congress 8 seats and the Shiromani Akahli Dal (SAD). Days after the poll results, one of the Congress counsellors joined the BJP.
The assembly elections in Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab are scheduled to be held between February 10 and March 7 in seven phases with the counting of votes on March 10.
The AAP has decided to contest all seats in Uttarakhand and Goa, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, barring Manipur. The party, which is in power in Delhi for three consecutive terms since 2013, is hoping to unseat the Congress from power in Punjab and form its government winning assembly polls in the state.
Political observers say that while Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal-led party have “good chances” of winning assembly elections in Punjab, the AAP will secure a significant vote share in assembly poll in Uttarakhand and Goa both.
In Uttar Pradesh, the ruling BJP and the Samajwadi Party are in direct contest this time, the Congress will manage to secure some seats in eastern Uttar Pradesh with Brahmin community, disenchanted with the saffron party during its five-year rule under chief minister Yogi Adityanath, rallying around the grand-old-party, the political observers say.
Ahead of the polling next month, Sisodia said people in all the five poll-bound states were “eagerly” waiting for “this opportunity” to bring “change” in the system and the country’s politics “that have been betrayed them for long”.
“They now have a chance to bring in the politics of work and honesty,” he said.
“I appeal—give chance to Kejriwal ji. Give chance to Kejriwal Ji’s honest politics. Today, people of Punjab, people of Uttarakhand, people of Goa and people of Uttar Pradesh are very inspired by Kejriwal ji’s politics,” he added.
While the AAP will make its electoral debut in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, it will join the fray for the second time in Goa and Punjab.
The party had lost all the seats it had contested in 2017 Goa assembly polls but made a surprise entry into Punjab politics winning 20 of the 112 seats and became the main Opposition party in the state in 2017.
The AAP is the only regional party in India which has support base in more than one state.