AAP to be cautious in upcoming civic elections in Maharashtra

Despite its spectacular success in the Delhi Assembly polls, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will be cautious while contesting the forthcoming civic polls in Maharashtra.

Despite its spectacular success in the Delhi Assembly polls, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will be cautious while contesting the forthcoming civic polls in Maharashtra.

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AAP MP Sanjay Singh said that the party will contest only in those areas where it has a good organisation network.

“We are going slowly and will contest in those places where we have good organisational strength. We will not contest any elections abruptly,” said Singh.

He said that the party will analyse the response to its membership drive which is currently going on across India.

In the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls, the AAP displayed a lacklustre performance as 23 of its 24 candidates lost their deposits.

Maharashtra is set to witness elections for two municipal corporations — Navi Mumbai and Aurangabad — in the next few months, and all major political parties are now gearing for this battle. After the party’s Delhi victory, AAP’s Maharashtra unit is eager to contest these polls in full force but their Delhi counterparts are exercising caution.

“AAP will fight these elections on issues like education, health, electricity and other issues which concern the people. We will aggressively market our Delhi model wherein we empowered the people and gave them the best of the basic facilities,” he said.

Singh said the AAP will fight the civic elections alone. He also called the desertion of top Maharashtra leaders like Anjali Damania, Medha Patkar, Wamanrao Chatap and Subhash Ware a great loss for the party.

“They are really good leaders and we missed them,” said Singh.

Political analysts point that the situation in Maharashtra is different from that of Delhi and AAP hardly has any presence in the Maharashtra.

“Arvind Kejriwal has worked in Delhi relentlessly and also commands good following. There is no one in Maharashtra to lead AAP and it also does not have any following. The current lot comprises just of people from different NGOs, and politics is an altogether different ball game,” said political analyst Surendra Jondhale.

State mulls Delhi education model

The Maharashtra government is contemplating to adopt Delhi’s education model in the state.

It is also likely to collaborate with the Delhi’s Aam Aadmi Party government led chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. State higher and technical education minister Uday Samant was in Delhi on Friday where he held discussions with Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia.

In an interaction with reporters, Samant said, “We are planning to adopt some good initiatives in Maharashtra. Similarly, Delhi can adopt some initiatives taken up by Maharashtra.”

“The officials from the state education department will come to Delhi for further discussions,” he added.