Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is expected to make some big welfare announcements in the Aam Aadmi Party rally in Bhopal's BHEL Dussehra Maidan on Tuesday as he kicks off the party's campaign for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls to be held later this year, a functionary said.
With the rally, the AAP is aiming to make a dent in the politics of MP that so far has been centred around the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been in power for a dominant part of the last two decades, and the Congress.
Kejriwal will be joined by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann at the rally, organisers said.
Cheap electricity, quality education to be the key
"Kejriwal is expected to make some big announcements. We are giving very cheap electricity in Delhi, free quality education and health facilities to the poor unlike what is happening in MP. Here power and health facilities are very costly," an AAP leader told from the rally venue.
"We have worked hard to ensure one lakh people across MP attend the rally. After this, we are going to hold such big rallies in all the divisional headquarters in the state. AAP has enrolled more than five lakh members since a drive was launched by organisation general secretary Sandeep Pathak on February 4," former MP AAP chief Pankaj Singh said.
Pathak, who is considered one of the main architects of the AAP's strategy in Punjab and Gujarat, has toured Bhopal, Indore, Rewa, Gwalior and Jabalpur as part of preparations for the Assembly polls.
Will contest all the 230 seats
The AAP, which recently announced it would contest all 230 Assembly seats in MP, is buoyed by its performance in the urban local body polls in July-August last year, where it claimed it had garnered 6.3 per cent of the vote share.
It had fielded 1,500 candidates for local body polls and the party managed to win the mayor's post in Singrauli in the state's Vindh region.
"Fifty-two candidates won in the local body polls, while 135-140 candidates came second. In panchayat polls, which are held without party symbols, AAP-supported candidates won 10 posts of district panchayat, 23 of janpad, 119 sarpanches, and 250 panch," Singh said.
After Punjab and Gujarat, MP a tough battle
The AAP had won a landslide victory in Punjab, with its candidates defeating several Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal heavyweights.
In Gujarat, it undertook a high-decibel campaign promising several welfare measures, which it called "guarantees", resulting in five wins in the 182-member House in the western state with a vote share of 13 per cent.
The 2018 elections in Madhya Pradesh threw up a hung Assembly, with the Congress emerging as the largest party with 114 seats in the 230-member House. The BJP won 109 seats.
The Congress formed a coalition government under Kamal Nath, but it fell in March 2020 after several MLAs loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia walked out and joined the BJP, paving the way for Shivraj Singh Chouhan to return as chief minister.
