AAP says its leader Naveen Jaihind will be party's CM candidate in 2019 Haryana elections

Chandigarh: Senior AAP Haryana leader Naveen Jaihind will be the party’s chief ministerial candidate in the 2019 state assembly elections. The announcement was made by AAP’s Haryana media in-charge Sudhir Yadav at a press conference in Gurgaon on Tuesday. “Jaihind, who is AAP’s Haryana unit president, is an able leader and is well educated. He is our (the party’s) face,” he said. [caption id=“attachment_4603761” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Naveen Jaihind. Image credit: Twitter[/caption] The Haryana assembly elections are due in October 2019. “In Naveen ji, we have more than a capable candidate, he is a youth, well educated. He has been into student politics for more than 10 years,” said Yadav when asked about who would be the chief ministerial candidate. Notably, Jaihind is considered close to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. With AAP keen to contest the Haryana polls in 2019, the party’s national convener, Kejriwal, had held a roadshow in several parts of the state nearly three months back. Kejriwal, who was accompanied by Jaihind during his roadshow, had also held a rally at Hisar, where he had attacked the BJP-led Centre and the Haryana government over a number of issues. The AAP national convener, who hails from the state had invoked his Haryana roots and asked the people to strengthen his party. “We will create a new Haryana. If you want peace, security, schools, hospitals, roads, then vote for the AAP,” Kejriwal had said. After tasting defeat at the hustings in the previous Lok Sabha polls from Haryana, the AAP had not contested the October 2014 assembly elections in the state. In the Hisar rally, Kejriwal had announced that his party would contest the forthcoming Haryana polls. Meanwhile, Yadav hit out at the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government of making false promises to the people of Gurgaon. “Gurgaon, which has world-class potential and generates revenues in hundreds of crores, continues to struggle for the want of basic infrastructure needs. “Even Metro rail connectivity has failed to reach interior areas of Gurgaon,” Yadav said.