The Aam Aadmi Party said on Sunday that its convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will not contest this year’s Lok Sabha polls. Kejriwal had lost ot Prime Minister Narendra Modi after contested from Varanasi in 2014 parliamentary elections.
Speaking to news agency PTI, AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said, “Kejriwal will not contest the Lok Sabha polls, as he wants to give special focus to his state. The AAP will contest on all the Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Goa. The party will contest on some seats in UP, and final modalities will be worked out by February.”
Singh that his party will field a candidate from Varanasi in 2019 as well as contesting some seats in eastern and western Uttar Pradesh.
Reacting to Kejriwal’s recent comments asking voters to not vote for the Congress, Singh said that the Delhi chief minister was quoted out of context. He said, “He had said that in a meeting in the national capital that if you want to defeat the BJP, then do not waste your vote by casting it in favour of the Congress. His statement was in the context of Delhi, from where the AAP is contesting on all the seats.”
In Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav had announced their seat sharing arrangements for the Lok Sabha polls on Saturday. According to the deal, while the SP-BSP alliance will contest on 38 seats each, two will be given to the RLD. The alliance will not field candidates in two tradition Congress seats, Amethi and Raebareli.
Uttar Pradesh has 80 Lok Sabha seats and the BJP had won 71 seats in 2014, riding the popularity crest of Modi.