AAP's membership drive from January 10, not to contest all Lok Sabha seats

NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party ( AAP) ruled out contesting all 545 seats in the Lok Sabha elections, but will field candidates in maximum number of seats and announced a nationwide fortnight campaign for enrolling new members from January 10.

After the party's two-day national executive meeting chaired by Arvind Kejriwal, senior AAP leader Yogendra Yadav said that the party will contest in at least 15 to 20 states and effort will be to put good candidates on maximum number of seats in Lok Sabha polls.

When asked whether they will contest from all 545 seats in Lok Sabha elections, Yadav said they are still not decided on how many seats the party will contest.

"Though it is sure that we will contest election from a large number of seats, at present we are not sure that we will contest from all 545 seats. We hope to contest from at least 15-20 states," Yadav said.

"AAP will contest the Lok Sabha elections under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal. It is still to early to discuss about the party's prime ministerial candidate," he said.

Yadav also announced that AAP will contest from all the 90 constituencies in the upcoming assembly elections in Haryana as well as all the 10 Lok Sabha seats of the state.

"The assembly elections in Haryana is due in October, but there are speculations that it might be held earlier or along with the Lok Sabha elections. The party has decided to contest all the Lok Sabha and assembly seats there," he added.

Yadav said that keeping in mind the unprecedented interest and excitement among people to join AAP, the party has decided to launch national membership drive - Main Bhi Aam Aadmi - between January 10 and January 26.

"We have got immense support from people, whether it is villages or urban areas. In view of this support, during this campaign we will invite people to join the party and encourage them to take out time for nation building," he said.

The AAP leader said that there was no membership fee for the nationwide campaign and the party has discontinued its initiative to take Rs 10 as token money for membership.