Aam Aadmi Party to contest Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra, will seek alliance with regional parties

Mumbai: The Aam Aadmi Party will contest Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra and would also seek alliances with regional parties, the party’s state chief Brigadier (retired) Sudhir Sawant said. The party’s formula on seat-sharing would be finalised by 15 February, he added. “We will fight all seats in Mumbai and on a few seats in the rest of Maharashtra after forging an alliance with like-minded parties. We are working on a seat-sharing formula and it will be finalised by 15 February,” Sawant told PTI. [caption id=“attachment_4301397” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] After a meeting with five regional parties, Sawant said AAP would campaign in the state on the “Delhi development model”. He said the party’s government in Delhi had focused in a major way on the education and health sectors. The party had earlier announced that it would contest Lok Sabha polls in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Goa only. “We are not desperate to fight the election, but will definitely fight in those seats where we can play a role in defeating BJP candidates. Our main objective is to stop BJP from winning,” he further said. Sawant informed that Independent MLA from Achalpur, Bacchu Kadu, would be entering into an alliance with the AAP. He said Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal would campaign in Maharashtra. Sawant added that his own candidature would be decided by the AAP leadership. The party had drawn a blank in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in the state. In another development, Samajwadi Party’s Maharashtra unit chief Abu Asim Azmi announced that his party would fight Maharashtra Lok Sabha polls alone. The Congress and Nationalist Congress Party, which are in talks for 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, had not offered SP a single seat.