Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024 | AAP to not contest polls; Kejriwal to campaign for MVA

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will not contest the upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra. Instead, party chief Arvind Kejriwal will campaign for the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition, AAP leader Sanjay Singh said on Saturday.

The MVA coalition comprises Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT), Sharad Pawar's NCP-SP, and the Congress.

"In the Maharashtra elections, the party's National Convenor, Arvind Kejriwal, will campaign for the MVA candidates. Aam Aadmi Party will not contest elections in Maharashtra," Singh, who is a Rajya Sabha MP, said on X.

According to AAP sources, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP-SP contacted the party about Kejriwal campaigning in Maharashtra. Kejriwal is also set to campaign for Hemant Soren's ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha in Jharkhand assembly polls, they said.

There are 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra, and voting will take place on November 20.

In Jharkhand, polling will be held in two phases on November 13 and 20, while the counting of votes in both states will take place on November 23.

AAP and the MVA constituents are part of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), which was formed before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to take on the BJP.

AAP entered into an alliance with the Congress, the largest constituent of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc, in Delhi, Gujarat and Haryana for the Lok Sabha polls.

However, it contested on its own in Punjab.

It also contested the recent assembly elections in Haryana independently and failed to open its account.

The Congress is also a constituent of the MVA in Maharashtra and a part of the ruling alliance in Jharkhand.

Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls will take place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP will be going up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress try to make their mark. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faces a new challenge after Hemant Soren's recent arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP. The Haryana election resulted in a shock loss for Congress, which was looking to galvanize on the Lok Sabha poll performance, while J&K also saw the grand old party eventually stepping away from the cabinet, with Omar Abdullah's JKNC forming government. It remains to be seen if the upcoming polls help BJP cement its position further or provide a fillip to I.N.D.I.A. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.

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