Ahmedabad: AAP state president Gopal Italia on Thursday said the Aam Aadmi Party has made an “impressive entry” into the Bharatiya Janata Party bastion in Gujarat and given a “stiff fight” to the ruling party in the recently concluded assembly elections. The led party contested 181 of Gujarat’s total 182 assembly seats, but won just five seats on Thursday, garnering nearly 13 per cent vote share. Italia termed AAP’s victory in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state as a “victory for Kejriwal’s politics”. of integrity” and vowed to make the party a “strong challenger” to the BJP in Gujarat in the coming years. We gave a tough fight to the opponent and won five seats. This is a revolution in Gujarat and the victory of Arvind Kejriwal’s honest politics.
AAP’s Gujarat unit chief, who contested from Katargam assembly seat in Surat district, suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the BJP. BJP candidate Vinod Moradia, who was a minister in the outgoing government, defeated Italia by a margin of over 64,000 votes. Before voting, AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal had claimed that Italia would emerge victorious from Katargam along with his party’s chief ministerial candidate Isudan Gadhvi and candidates from Khambhalia and Varachha, Alpesh Kathiria respectively, but his prediction failed. During the election campaign, the Chief Minister of Delhi had also given in writing at an event in Surat, predicting the victory of these three candidates of his party by a huge margin of votes.
But, in Khambhalia, BJP candidate Mulubhai Bera defeated Gadhvi by a margin of over 18,000 votes. Kathiriya, a prominent leader of the 2015 Patidar quota agitation in Gujarat, was defeated by BJP’s sitting MLA Kishorbhai Kanani from Varachha by a margin of over 16,000 votes. On the defeat of his and his colleagues Kathiria and Gadhvi, Italia said, ‘I want to say that the smallest party of the country (AAP) has given a tough fight to the biggest party of the world (BJP) and for this I congratulate everyone. ‘ He claimed that over 40 lakh voters voted in favor of AAP candidates across Gujarat in the two-phase elections held on December 1 and December 5. The counting of votes took place on 8 December.
Italia said, “I want to assure you that we will work hard and fulfill the aspirations of the people who put their trust in us and voted in favor of our candidates, making the AAP a national party.” He attributed AAP’s victory in five assembly constituencies to the “hard work” of leaders and workers of the 10-year-old organisation. Italia said, “For the first time we have fought the assembly elections in a systematic and orderly manner. AAP has now become an experienced party. Aam Aadmi Party is the future of Gujarat.” He said the party would review its electoral strategy and take corrective measures to ensure that it emerges as a strong challenger to the ruling BJP in the next assembly elections in Gujarat. “We will take our message to the masses more effectively,” the AAP leader said.