AAP to contest all 36 assembly seats in Mumbai

MUMBAI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday announced that it will contest the Maharashtra assembly election on its own and field candidates on all 36 seats in Mumbai. This was announced in a press conference by the party’s Mumbai President, Preeti Sharma Menon, who also said that the party is yet to take a call on the rest of the state. “In the rest of Maharashtra, our colleagues and volunteers are galvanised and preparations are on in full swing,” was all she would say.

Calling BJP an anti-Maharashtra and anti-Mumbai party, she blamed the party for the crumbling infrastructure of Mumbai. “There is no public representation in any of the 27 municipal corporations of Maharashtra, including the BMC in Mumbai. Housing remains an unresolved issue and slums are becoming increasingly unlivable. The builder-contractor mafia have taken, even as important projects are being taken away from the city to Gujarat,” she said.

The AAP city president also said that her party will continue to support the INDIA block at the national level even if the party decides to fight assembly elections against the constituent parties of the block in state assembly elections. “National alliance is different and state politics is different. Although AAP will continue to support INDIA block at the national level, we will fight assembly elections in Haryana against the Congress and have decided to go it alone in Mumbai in the upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra.”

However, she also hinted at the party still keeping options open, by saying that if MVA leaders approach them with any proposal for seat sharing, the central leadership of AAP will deliberate over it before taking the final decision.