The Aam Aadmi Party has decided to fight at least six to seven seats in West Bengal in the coming Lok Sabha election. The party is currently running membership drives in the districts as well as parts of Kolkata, which, it claims, has generated a "positive and exciting" response.
AAP's national spokesperson Deepak Vajpayee said, "Going by the excitement and positive response that we have received during the membership drive, it will be proper to contest some seats in the Lok Sabha polls." It had not yet been decided how many seats the party would fight, though, Vajpayee said.
But, Rakesh Jha, AAP leader in Bengal, said, "We will contest six to seven Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, out of which three are Kolkata North, Kolkata South and Jadavpur. Other seats are yet to be decided." Jha said that the main plank of their campaign would be drive against corruption, under which comes the chit fund scam in the state, but they would also highlight state-specific issues like growing crimes against women.
The Aam Aadmi Party would also try to capitalise on the "resentment" against the Trinamool Congress which is in power since May, 2011, he said. The AAP's Bengal chapter rolled out a cadre-training programme last week at the Indian Association Building and also started a "Jhadu Chalo Yatra" from February 15 to February 23 to familiarise the people in Bengal with the party and its agenda.
AAP leaders in Bengal claimed that the membership of the party at present stood around 1.5 lakhs, some of whom, they said, would be drafted as active volunteers.
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