AAP decides to fight Lok Sabha elections; wants Ashok Khemka to lead party in Haryana

NEW DELHI: After carefully weighing the pros and cons, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday decided to take the plunge and contest the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. It’s unlikely that it will contest from all 543 seats, but indications are the number of candidates it fields will be substantial.

At a brainstorming session, the party core group decided to appoint a committee headed by senior leaders Yogendra Yadav and Sanjay Singh to draw up a roadmap for the polls. While there are fears that resources will be badly stretched, especially if a re-poll for Delhi assembly is held simultaneously, the dominant view is AAP is on a roll and it should not lose this chance to stamp an all-India presence.

AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said he would be happy if its campaign in Haryana was led by Ashok Khemka — the crusader IAS officer who exposed an alleged land scam involving Robert Vadra and has since faced the ire of the Haryana Congress government. When contacted, 48-year-old Khemka refused to comment. AAP is also reaching out to Durga Sakthi Nagpal, the officer who took on the sand mining mafia and was suspended by the UP government.

Kejriwal said regional non-partisan people’s movements for better governance such as the Andhra Pradeshbased Lok Satta Party, led by Jayaprakash Narayan, should come under the AAP banner and contest the Lok Sabha elections together.