The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has announced its decision to contest the upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra. The state unit of the party said that the party will contest all the 36 seats in Mumbai.
Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP, which is a part of the opposition INDIA alliance, said that "the alliance was for the Lok Sabha polls and will continue to be together at the national level".
"The AAP will contest all 36 seats in Mumbai. In the rest of Maharashtra, our colleagues and volunteers are galvanised and preparations are on in full swing," AAP leader Preeti Sharma Menon said.
The party leaders in Mumbai have already started extensive preparations to this effect. "In the rest of Maharashtra, our colleagues and volunteers are galvanised and preparations are on in full swing," Menon said.
"The present BJP-Shinde Sena led government has zero political will for public welfare and is instead busy in wholesale corruption as they are convinced they aren't returning to power," Preeti Sharma claimed.
The BJP is an anti-Maharashtra and anti-Mumbai party, while the Eknath Shinde government has no time for public welfare and is busy looting the exchequer, she added.
Attacking the BJP, she said, "The BJP cannot stand Mumbai's pre-eminence as India's largest and most cosmopolitan city, which is also the country's financial capital. Mumbai is the engine for India's economic growth. There is a deliberate attempt to kill Mumbai by the BJP through an exodus of projects meant for Mumbai to Gujarat."
"Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis have ensured that Maharashtra's interest is subservient to that of Gujarat, she alleged. Maharashtra and its people deserve better and AAP is not just the alternative but is the solution," the party's working president Ruben Mascarenhas said.
The elections to the 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly are due later this year.