The resignation of two of its Ministers, including Manish Sisodia, amid allegations of graft, has thrown a new challenge for the AAP with its rivals using the development to discredit the party's key poll plank of "Kejriwal model of governance".
The development comes at a time when the AAP is gearing up to contest all the seats in the Assembly elections to be held in Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, keeping its "Delhi model of governance" as one of the key planks for the polls. AAP leaders said the party has become stronger whenever it has been attacked and accused the BJP government of running a "witch-hunt" against its leaders.
Insiders say the AAP leadership has "already" asked the party's state units to "intensify" their campaign against the BJP and the Congress in Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan which will go to polls this year. The party will turn the table on the BJP with a massive counter-campaign highlighting a range of issues, including allegations of stock manipulation by the Adani Group and the alleged misuse of central probe agencies by its government at the Centre, they said.
Riding high on its electoral success in Punjab and gains in Gujarat and Goa last year, the AAP is gearing up to contest in Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan even though it had failed to open its account in the last assembly elections in these states.
AAP leaders said the party has become stronger whenever it has been attacked and accused the BJP government of running a "witch-hunt" against its leaders. Kejriwal is scheduled to visit these four states to launch his party's foray ahead of elections.
While Kejriwal is scheduled to launch his party's poll campaign in BJP-ruled Karnataka on March 4, he will visit Chhattisgarh and sound the AAP's poll bugle in the Congress-ruled state on March 5. The AAP supremo will launch his poll campaign in Rajasthan, currently ruled by the Congress, on March 13, and in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh on March 14.