New Delhi: After its glorious victory in the Assembly elections in Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party is set to increase its footprint throughout the country with appointment of nine new office bearers. The party issued a statement announcing new office bearers for nine states with some of the old ledgers of the party given additional roles to their existing ones in new states.
A senior party leader on account of anonymity told Millennium Post that AAP will contest elections in Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, and Haryana as well. "It is important to establish your party in several states if you want to win the Lok Sabha elections in the future. AAP is working on winning people with their work in states like Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana and Telangana," he said.
AAP has banked upon its experienced leaders to drive its campaigns and expand the party's base in the states it is looking to target now. Several senior leaders with proven track record have been appointed as election in-charges. The MLA from Patiala Gulab Singh–who has been working for the organisation of the party in Gujarat since 2016, is in-charge of Gujarat and will play a crucial role in the coming times, the leader added. Dr. Sandeep Pathak, who has been recently nominated by the party for Rajya Sabha, has been appointed in Gujarat as a prabhari.
Delhi's Health Minister Satyendar Jain has been made the election in-charge of Himachal Pradesh, while party's organisation leader Durgesh Pathak has been appointed in-charge. Ratnesh Gupta, a close aide of Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, is already in charge of the party in Himachal, along with two other leaders they were posted in Himachal. The party will soon announce its office bearers for other states in the coming few days.
The MLA from Dwarka has been given an additional role of being election-in-charge of Rajasthan while Somnath Bharthi has been given the same responsibility for Telangana. Bharthi while commenting on his new responsibility said that he is hopeful about AAP's performance when the party contests there.
The party has appointed Delhi's Environment Minister Gopal Rai as election in-charge of Chhattisgarh and MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj has been appointed as election in-charge of Haryana. The party will focus on Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Rajasthan, Telangana, Kerala and Punjab.