In its quest to win Delhi Lok Sabha seats from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2019 general elections, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came out with a constituency specific strategy to target the rural population and young voters.
Announcing AAP’s push to win all the seven Lok Sabha seats of the national Capital, the AAP’s Delhi unit chief and a Minister in Arvind Kejriwal Cabinet, Gopal Rai, outrightly dismissed any chance of a pre-poll alliance with the Congress.
Rai, who also holds the portfolios of Labour, Employment and Development in the Kejriwal Government, said the Congress is not in the fight in the Lok Sabha polls.
The AAP has only a "direct fight with the BJP". "We are working on a constituency-specific strategy on all seven seats in Delhi in view of Lok Sabha elections next year," Rai said.
In the 2014 general elections, the AAP had fielded its candidates on all seven seats in Delhi, but none of them could secure a win.
Talking about the party's strategy for the northwest Delhi seat, Rai said the Aam Aadmi Party had failed to receive support in rural pockets in the last Lok Sabha polls, and now the party in-charge for the constituency, Gugan Singh, is focusing on these areas with extensive contact programmes.
The AAP's in-charge of Lok Sabha seats are most likely to be official candidates in the Lok Sabha polls to be held next year. He said the party's in-charge for the Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha seat, Pankaj Gupta, has started laying emphasis on small meetings with the electorate in the trader-dominated borough.
Union Minister Harsh Vardhan had won this seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. According to the strategy for east Delhi constituency having a mix of voters living in posh localities and unauthorised colonies, the party has adopted extensive outreach programmes to reach voters.
Senior AAP leader Atishi has been made in-charge of the Parliamentary seat. Barring West Delhi, the AAP has announced in-charge on the remaining six Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, but Rai has made it clear that no MLA will be given ticket for this seat.
There is a buzz in the party that Uttam Nagar MLA Naresh Balyan will contest from the west Delhi Lok Sabha seat."The party will officially announce candidates on all the seven seats in Delhi, along with those in Haryana and Punjab, by January next year," Rai said.
In the 2015 Assembly polls, the AAP had got around 54.34 per cent vote share while the BJP and Congress had 32.19 per cent and 9.65 per cent votes respectively.