A day after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asked his leaders to refrain from making any far-fetched statements and focus on the national Capital, senior party leader and ideologue Yogendra Yadav on Sunday shared much more ambitious plans for the party.
According to Yadav, in the long-run, the AAP is planning to make itself a significant political force in at least four major States in the next five years without entering into any “arrangements of convenience” with any regional party.
“Any kind of haste or hype should be avoided,” Yadav tweeted in response to media reports claiming that the AAP is planning to fight elections in four to five States after the historical victory in the national Capital.
“We are not a regional party. In the long-term we want to be a national alternative. That is why we chose Delhi consciously. We want to emerge as a principled force in national politics. In next three-five years, we want to become viable in more States than Delhi and Punjab,” Yadav said.
Terming coalitions like the Third Front as “arrangements of convenience”, he said the AAP will not join any such groupings. He also ruled out having any understanding with parties like Trinamool Congress and JD(U) which had extended support to AAP in the Delhi polls.
“They have not sought political support and even we did not extend political support to them. It was merely a gesture on their part based on their own strengths and weaknesses. What they do not realise that we are anti-political establishment,” he said.
A noted political scientist, Yadav said the AAP’s target was to capture more than 20 per cent vote-share in each of the states where the party wants to become a viable alternative as part of its medium-term expansion drive.
He refused to name the States where AAP wants to spread wings when asked but said their selection will depend on space for potential opportunity and organisational strength.
On whether the AAP would contest the Bihar Assembly elections later this year and polls in West Bengal next year, he did not give a direct answer. Punjab, where AAP had won four seats in the 2014 lok Sabha elections, will be a major focus area with the party deciding to fight the 2017 assembly polls in the state with full vigour.
Commenting on AAP’s sweeping victory in the Delhi polls, Yadav said the scale of the win has put enormous pressure on the Arvind Kejriwal-led Government and exuded confidence of it living up to people’s expectations.
“The pressure is huge. Nothing is heavier than burden of people’s expectations. The challenge is to perform. However, if you manage to raise the living standards of people even by a little, they will be happy. “There are big challenges in governance because Delhi is not a normal State. People also expect different standards of probity from us as we represent clean politics,” he said.
After his swearing-in ceremony on Saturday, Kejriwal said, “During the past few days, I have been watching people from my party say on TV that we will fight elections here and there. We will contest elections in five States, 10 States, etc. I can see some amount of arrogance in these statements. I do not think this is right.”