AAP to announce its CM candidate tomorrow for Gujarat elections based on 'public opinion'

The Aam Aadmi Party will announce its chief ministerial candidate for next month's Gujarat assembly polls on Friday, the general secretary of the party's state unit, Manoj Sorathiya, said shortly after the Election Commission announced voting and counting dates. "Tomorrow, AAP will announce CM candidate for the upcoming assembly elections through public opinion," he said.

Last week AAP boss and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal launched a campaign in Gujarat to choose the party's CM face. "The atmosphere in Gujarat is signalling that AAP is going to form the government. We want to ask the people of Gujarat who should be the next chief minister, and for that, we are issuing a contact number and email ID ..." he said.

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The party held a similar programme before the election in Punjab earlier this year, after which it announced Bhagwant Mann as the candidate, after which the AAP recorded a thumping win in the formerly Congress-ruled state and Mann was sworn in as chief minister.

The Election Commission has said Gujarat will vote in two phases - December 1 and 5 - with votes to be counted on December 8, which is also the date on which votes from the Himachal Pradesh election will be counted. The term of the current Gujarat assembly ends in February 2023.

In Gujarat the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is looking for a sixth consecutive win with the AAP looking to play spoilsport in what is traditionally a straight Congress-BJP fight. In 2017 the BJP won 99 seats and Congress 77, but after a series of defections the BJP's tally went up to 111.