AAP to contest Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in 2022

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will contest the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in 2022 with an aim to increase its political footprint.

Party supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal made the announcement through a digital address where he pitched AAP as a party with "honesty and intent", qualities which he alleged the other parties in the state do not have and take forward the state.

He sought to pitch his government's "achievements" in Delhi as the base for entering the electoral battle in the state, currently ruled by Yogi Adityanath-led BJP and where the Opposition appeared in disarray.

Kejriwal's announcement also comes a couple of months after the AAP made it clear that it will be contesting all the seats in the elections to the Uttarakhand Assembly in 2022.

The AAP had not contested the 2017 Assembly elections, while it garnered 0.01% votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when it contested three out of 80 seats.

The Opposition in Uttar Pradesh is a divided lot with Samajwadi Party, BSP and Congress looking the separate way. Samajwadi Party and Congress were in alliance in the Assembly elections while in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, SP and BSP fought together. However, the parties have gone separate ways after these elections and have indicated that there is no chance for a coming together.

AAP has hit the ground some time ago with party in-charge Sanjay Singh leading several campaigns against the Adityanath government. Singh was slapped with cases, including those under sections related to sedition in the Indian Penal Code.

"AAP will contest the 2022 Assembly polls in UP. Since the time the AAP government was formed for the third time in Delhi, many people who belong to UP and are residing in Delhi came to me. They and several organisations are requesting that AAP should fight elections in UP. They want all the services which are offered in Delhi to be offered in UP," Kejriwal said.

"On asking them about how a small party like AAP will take this up, they said that the people of Uttar Pradesh are fed up with these old parties. The people of UP will come forward to support AAP and to defeat these big leaders who consider UP as their property," he said.

Claiming that "dirty politics and corrupt leaders" are stopping UP from walking on the path of development, he said they stabbed the people in their back while breaking all records of corruption.

"Why do the people of UP travel to Delhi for every major and minor facility? If a family living in Kanpur has to send their child to a good college, they have to send him/her to Delhi. If a person living in Gorakhpur has to get good medical treatment for his/her parents, they have to come to Delhi. Why?" he asked.