AAP bigwigs including Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia are likely to skip assembly election campaign in Gujarat where the party is contesting in only 29 of the 182 seats.
Senior party leaders Sanjay Singh, Ashutosh and Kumar Vishwas too will not campaign in the Gujarat election which will be held in two phases on December 9 and December 14.
This will be the first time that the Delhi chief minister is not campaigning for party candidates in assembly polls in other states.
When the party contested Punjab and Goa assembly polls early this year, all the top leaders camped in the states for days. Sanjay Singh led the party campaign in Punjab.
Party leaders say that the plan in Gujarat is to focus on these few seats and contest with all the available resources and strength.
Earlier, the party had fancied its chances in Gujarat, being governed by the BJP for over 20 years.
Earlier in the year and last year, Kejriwal, Sisodia and other AAP leaders made several trips to Gujarat and kept raising the heat against the government over the Patidar quota agitation and the flogging of some Dalit youths in Una.
However, after the party’s poor performance in Punjab and Goa, and its humiliating defeat in the Rajouri Garden assembly bypoll and civic elections in Delhi, the party decided to focus on Delhi.
Kejriwal was to visit the state in March, but after the electoral setbacks in Punjab and Goa, he cancelled the trip.
The party was also largely divided on whether to fight on all the 182 seats or contest in a limited number of constituencies where the party had a good organisational support. Financial resources was also a major concern for the party.
With its win in the Bawana assembly bypoll in Delhi, the party got some of its confidence back, and decided to enter the electoral fray in Gujarat.
A party leader said, “It is wrong to say that the party leadership is not focusing on Gujarat. Yes, (Arvind) Kejriwal is not visiting the state but Gopal Rai, our Gujarat in- charge, was in the state for 15-20 days.”
