AAP not to contest polls in other states

Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal declared on Saturday that his party would not contest Assembly elections in other states.
He slammed his associates pleading for it, and made it clear that he would limit himself to the national capital for the next five years.

Party sources said Kejriwal’s criticism has generated uneasiness within the AAP, as senior leaders, including Yogendra Yadav, have been expressing this view after the Delhi victory.

The declaration has come as a big relief to the Janata Parivar Parties, especially the JD-U, the SP and the RJD.

“He wants to fulfil his promises made to the Delhi people. It is most welcome,” a JD-U leader told Deccan Herald.

“...When you bag such a win, people become arrogant and then everything is finished. We have to be vigilant and make sure that arrogance does not arise. Only then will our mission not succeed. I have heard people on TV saying we will contest polls in four states, in 10 states. This shows arrogance,” said the AAP leader at Ramlila Maidan after being sworn in as Delhi chief minister.

He added: “Why did the Congress lose? It was arrogance. Why did people hand defeat to the BJP? It was because of its arrogance.”

Kejriwal also chose to reopen the issue that had almost split the party vertically: contesting last year's Lok Sabha elections.

“We won 28 seats last time, arrogance arose in the party, and we decided to contest the Lok Sabha elections across the country. And we lost. I have decided to work only in Delhi for the next five years,” he said.

Soon after the party's landslide win in Delhi, ideologue Yogendra Yadav and others had taken the view that it was not a regional outfit and wished to become “alternative to politics” at the national level.

He had also expressed the view that the patty would contest elections in Punjab, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.  Interestingly, majority of the states Yadav had named are ruled by the BJP.