Maharashtra Assembly polls: Aam Aadmi Party to support 'clean candidates' irrespective of their party

After taking a step back from contesting the Maharashtra Assembly elections themselves, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has decided to support candidates who have a good record and clean image, regardless of the party they belong to.

Speaking to dna, Anjali Damania, state convenor of AAP said, “In the upcoming state elections, AAP will be backing candidates who have a good track record, irrespective of the parties they represent. There are some good candidates in every party. We will study the constituencies and find out such good contestants so that we can promote them.”

Discussing the Maharashtra Assembly polls in the party's executive meet, AAP has also decided to organise sabhas against corrupt candidates in the respective constituencies. “In constituencies where the candidates are corrupt or have a criminal background, we would request citizens to use NOTA,” she said. Damania added, “Even though we have taken a step back from the state Assembly polls, we are very much active in the election process. As a party we still have duties towards the citizens.” 

Citing various reasons for not contesting the Maharashtra Assembly elections, she said, “We don't have the required money and system in place and we don't want to repeat the mistakes we made in the Lok Sabha elections by contesting all seats.” In the coming years, AAP plans to build its cadre base at the ground level and expand its reach in every nook and corner of Maharashtra through “Mission Vistar” (expansion). “In the next three-four years, we will contest the corporation elections across the state. We will start off with the Navi Mumbai municipal corporation election and focus on civic issues like water, sewage, roads at the local level.”

When asked whether the party will be able to gain the trust of the people after Kejriwal's resignation from the Delhi chief minister's post, Damania said, “As far as the overall politics is concerned, AAP has changed the dynamics.”

In the recently concluded 2014 Lok Sabha elections, AAP failed miserably and their candidates lost their deposits in as many as 414 seats out of 432 seats. In its Lok Sabha debut, AAP received 10 lakh 83 thousand votes in Maharashtra, while its candidate from Chandrapur constituency, Vamanrao Chatap got a maximum of 2.4 lakh votes.