Shimla: After a landslide victory in the Punjab Assembly polls, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is hopeful of repeating its performance in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections, scheduled to be held later this year. AAP workers, under the leadership of Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain, held a massive roadshow in Shimla on Saturday.
Addressing media after the roadshow, Jain said APP will contest elections on all 68 seats in Himachal Pradesh in upcoming Assembly elections. “After Punjab now it’s Himachal Pradesh’s turn. We will contest elections on all 68 seats in Himachal Pradesh in the upcoming Assembly elections… AAP will form the government in Himachal Pradesh in the upcoming Assembly elections. Health and education systems are in a bad state here,” Jain told news agency ANI.
Buoyed with a landslide victory in neighbouring Punjab, Himachal Pradesh Aam Aadmi Party president Anup Kesri also told news agency PTI that the people of the state are fed up with the traditional political parties. “The AAP will create history in Himachal Pradesh as it has created in Punjab, and it will form its government in the hill state,” he added.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led party had failed to secure any seat in the previous elections in Himachal Pradesh, whereas it had won four Lok Sabha and 20 Vidhan Sabha seats in Punjab previously.
When asked about this, Kesri said the AAP had created its base in each of the 67 Assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh. Further, the Punjab poll results will certainly have a positive impact on the AAP’s performance in Himachal Pradesh, he said, adding that AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and other prominent leaders of the party are expected to visit the state soon.
Meanwhile, the ruling BJP, on the other hand, maintains that it will retain power in the hill state after its remarkable performances in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
The state’s BJP chief spokesperson Randhir Sharma told PTI that his party will replicate its success in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand in Himachal Pradesh, too.
He said the Jai Ram Thakur-led BJP government was performing well and in the recent budget, it lowered the age limit for the old-age pension from 70 to 60 years. “These measures will help the BJP to come to power again,” he claimed.
On the AAP’s claim, Sharma said that there was no scope for a third party in Himachal Pradesh. Such experiments were done earlier too, but they were not successful, he said.
The Opposition Congress, too, is hopeful of victory, particularly after its recent win in the bypolls.
(With agency inputs)
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