After the victory in Punjab, now the eyes of the Aam Aadmi Party are on the Gujarat Assembly elections. AAP is trying to establish a foothold in Gujarat, after which the concerns of BJP have increased. There is a BJP government in the state for 25 years, but now the BJP is troubled by the increasing activism of AAP.
BJP is concerned that AAP is preparing to contest elections in Gujarat on the ‘Delhi model’. According to BJP sources, party leaders feel that AAP’s emphatic victory in the two states may affect some seats in Gujarat. Party sources said these concerns have been conveyed to BJP’s Gujarat unit in-charge Bhupendra Yadav.
AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal is busy preparing for the assembly elections in full swing. Earlier this month, he had visited Gujarat for the election campaign. During one of his addresses in Ahmedabad, he had asked people to give a chance to his party.
Last year, AAP had emerged as the main opposition to the BJP, winning 27 out of 120 seats in the Surat municipal elections. Meanwhile, Bhupendra Yadav had met with the BJP core group in the state during his short two-day visit to the state last week to focus on the political climate in the wake of the assembly elections and how the situation could be rectified to ensure BJP’s victory. It could have been discussed. He also held discussions with Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and ministers besides party general secretary, vice-president, office bearers and spokespersons.
In the meeting with Bhupendra Yadav, some leaders raised the issue of AAP’s emergence as a challenge and mentioned how Kejriwal tried to attract public attention to the ‘Delhi model’. The leaders say that there was a lot of discussion in the media about this visit of Kejriwal, which is not good for the BJP.
At the same time, Bhupendra Yadav claims that the atmosphere in Gujarat is in favor of BJP, so the party does not need to worry and has advised not to pay attention to Kejriwal. He told the party leaders that at this time only focus on the strength of BJP and show prominently the work done by reaching out to the voters benefited from PM Modi and Gujarat government schemes.