AAP to launch poll campaign on Feb 23

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) declared on Saturday that it would contest the Lok Sabha elections under Arvind Kejriwal's leadership, and that he would launching the party’s poll campaign on February 23 at a rally in Rohtak, the home district of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. However, it did not name its prime ministerial candidate.

The party will hold its second election rally in Kanpur on March 2, which elected Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal to Parliament last time.

The AAP went into election mode soon after the Kejriwal government quitting power in Delhi, and on Saturday launched an anti-corruption campaign across the country.

The party's Political Affairs Committee, its party’s highest decision-making body, will meet on Sunday to decide the list of Lok Sabha candidates.

However, the AAP remained evasive on whether Kejriwal would be contest the Lok Sabha polls. Both Yogendra Yadav, party ideologue, and Kejriwal evaded the question.

While Kejriwal said in a TV interview he had not thought about it, Yadav told a press conference, after a meeting of the Political Affairs Committee at Kejriwal's official residence, that whether he contests parliamentary or assembly polls, the party would contest under his leadership. The Political Affairs Committee congratulated Kejriwal for resigning his post. “It was impossible to even introduce the Jan Lokpal Bill, and the party has complimented Arvind Kejriwal for taking the clear decision to resign,” said Yadav.