Kejriwal to lead AAP's poll charge into Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, MP

AAP national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will visit Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh next month to launch his party's foray into these states that are slated to go to polls later this year.

According to sources in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Kejriwal will launch his party's poll campaign in Karnataka on March 4. The assembly polls in the southern state, which is currently ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), are likely to be held in April-May.

Kejriwal will visit Chhattisgarh and sound the AAP's poll bugle in the Congress-ruled state on March 5.

He will launch the AAP's poll campaign in Rajasthan, also ruled by the Congress, on March 13, the sources said.

The AAP leader will visit Madhya Pradesh, ruled by the BJP, on March 14 to launch his party's poll campaign in the state.

The Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan Assembly polls are expected to be held later this year.

"Kejriwal will visit Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh on March 4, March 5, March 13 and March 14 respectively and sound the poll bugle in these states," one of the sources said.

The assembly polls in these four states may turn out to be an interesting affair with the AAP gearing up to join the fray, riding high on its electoral successes in Punjab, Gujarat and Goa last year.

While the Kejriwal-led party stormed to power in Punjab in March last year, it also managed to breach the BJP bastion of Gujarat by winning five seats in the state with a nearly 13 per cent vote share in the polls held in December.

The AAP also gained a toehold in Goa, winning two assembly seats in the coastal state last year. The electoral gains in these three states also paved the way for the AAP to get recognised by the Election Commission (EC) as a national party.

The AAP has announced that it will contest all the seats in Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh this time even though it had failed to open its account in the last assembly polls held in these states.

In 2018, the party had contested 28 of the 224 assembly seats in Karnataka, 85 of the 90 seats in Chhattisgarh, 142 of the 200 seats in Rajasthan and 208 of the 230 seats in Madhya Pradesh but failed to win a single one.