The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday said it expects to contest at least eight out of the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat in alliance with the Congress and other members of the opposition's INDIA grouping.
It has already announced candidates for Bharuch and Bhavnagar Lok Sabha seats on the basis of "winnability" and hopes that other parties in the alliance will accept it, said AAP's Gujarat in-charge Sandeep Pathak here.
The BJP had won all 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat in the 2019 general elections.
"If we look at the vote shares of AAP and Congress in 2022 (assembly polls), one-third of the (Lok Sabha) seats should go to the Aam Aadmi Party and two-thirds to the Congress," Pathak told reporters.
"Accordingly, we should roughly get eight seats in Gujarat and the Congress should contest the remaining 18. We have announced candidates on two seats and discussions are underway for the remaining seats. We are confident that they will accept and we will contest the elections together," said the AAP's Rajya Sabha member.
Asked whether other parties in the INDIA bloc will approve of the party's decision to announce candidates for Bharuch and Bhavnagar, Pathak said he hoped to get the alliance's nod.
"To win the election, it is important to give tickets to candidates who are winnable. We have kept merit in mind, and within the limits of our alliance, announced the names. Negotiations are underway and we hope they (other allies) will accept it," he added.
"We have formed this alliance because our main objective is to stop the BJP which is destroying democracy. If candidates are selected on the basis of merit, we will definitely win. We are parties with different ideologies which have come together to defeat the BJP," he said.
AAP has announced its Dediapada MLA and tribal leader Chaitar Vasava as the candidate from Bharuch Lok Sabha seat and Botad MLA Umesh Makwana as the candidate from Bhavnagar seat.
Pathak further said that his party got 13 percent votes in the assembly elections, showing that the people of Gujarat wanted a change.
"So we will fight the next election with more effort. Currently we have an alliance with INDIA, so we will fight and win the coming elections with the INDIA group," he said.
Vasava was a very popular leader in Bharuch, a tribal-reserved seat, Pathak said.
"Congress has not won a single seat in Bhavnagar district and Umesh Makwana is popular and doing very well there, so he is a perfect candidate for Bhavnagar," he said.
Bharuch and Narmada are among the most backward districts of Gujarat, and despite the presence of industries, local people are not getting employment, he claimed.
"Today there is a BJP government both at the center and in the state, but the entire belt has not developed. BJP has money to spend in other districts, why doesn't it have money to spend in these tribal districts?" he asked.
