New Delhi: Ahead of the Goa Assembly elections due early next year, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has decided that its candidates will have to sign a legal affidavit mentioning that they will not leave the party to join any other .
According to AAP leader Amit Palekar, the decision has been taken to prevent defection as the Arvind Kejriwal-led party feels that the coastal state is “notorious” for politicians, news agency PTI reported.
AAP will contest all 40 seats in the Goa Assembly elections to be held in February 2022.
“Goa is notorious for political defections despite being a small state,” AAP leader Amit Palekar was quoted as saying by PTI.
“To solve the problem, AAP candidates will sign a legal affidavit, promising that they will not leave the party to join any other party,” he said.
The AAP leader questioned the Congress whether it can give any guarantee that its candidates will not defect.
“There is not a single party in the state which can assure that its candidate will not join the BJP,” he said. In 2019, 10 Congress MLAs had joined the BJP,” said Amit Palekar.
He mentioned how Alexo Reginaldo Lourenco, who was in the first list of candidates released by the Congress, joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC), which is contesting all seats in Goa.
“Another Congress candidate is also likely to join the BJP soon. Such poaching in the state indicates that the ruling BJP has learned that majority cannot be achieved,” he said.
According to the AAP leader, to solve this problem, you will sign candidate affidavits which will be distributed among their voters, assuring them that they will not join any other party.
“If they do so, voters can take legal action against them,” he said.
Amit Palekar said that you will sign the candidate affidavits as soon as the party makes a formal announcement.
“If a candidate leaves AAP and joins another party, he is immediately disqualified as an MLA,” he said.
Apart from BJP and Congress, AAP and TMC have entered the political battlefield in Goa as both the parties try to spread their footprints in the upcoming assembly elections.
The AAP had recently ruled out an alliance with the Mamata Banerjee-led party in Goa. Meanwhile, the Trinamool has announced a tie-up with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), Goa’s oldest regional outfit, for elections to the 40-member assembly to be held in early 2022.
(with agency input)
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