Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: After Gujarat, AAP supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is heading to Goa for a two day visit from Thursday to prepare the party for the Lok Sabha elections.
Sources said during the January 11-12 tour, Kejriwal will interact with party leaders and workers. There are two Lok Sabha seats in Goa and BJP and Congress share one each.
AAP, which won two Assembly seats with 6.77 per cent vote share, is demanding one Lok Sabha seat from Congress. However, Congress does not appear keen to share the seats with the Kejriwal-led party.
Negotiators from AAP who met Congress’ National Alliance Committee are learnt to have sought to raise the demand for a seat in Goa along with Gujarat and Haryana besides its strongholds Delhi and Punjab.
However, Congress has not entered into a discussion on Goa or any other state with AAP except Delhi. The Congress panel has told AAP negotiators that their mandate as of now is to discuss only Delhi where AAP has offered three seats to Congress. Both parties will continue to discuss Delhi.
Kejriwal’s decision to tour Goa comes amid Congress’ reluctance to discuss other states. Kejriwal visited Gujarat on Sunday and Monday and met jailed AAP MLA Chaitar Vasava, who he announced as Bharuch Lok Sabha candidate.
The unilateral announcement comes against the backdrop of AAP’s attempt to put pressure on the Congress to leave at least one seat for the party. AAP’s confidence stems from its impressive performance in Gujarat Assembly elections winning five seats with a vote share of 12.92 per cent.
Haryana is another state where AAP eyes at least three seats from the Congress, whose state unit is against any alliance with the AAP like its Delhi and Punjab units. (ENDS)
While the Delhi unit has now come around, Congress’ Punjab unit has not changed its stand on not having any truck with the AAP, which trounced them in the Assembly elections.