Arvind Kejriwal joins door-to-door campaign for AAP candidates in Goa

PTI, Jan 15, 2022, 6:35 PM IST

With Goa assembly elections just a month away and many political parties vying for a power pie, AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday joined his party’s candidates in their door-to-door campaign and claimed to have received a good response from people.

Kejriwal, who arrived in Goa on Saturday afternoon, joined the campaign at St Andre Assembly constituency in North Goa. The Delhi CM claimed that there is an immense response from the people for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nominees. “Voters in Goa are looking for a change. There are issues like unemployment which needs to be addressed,” he told reporters.

Kejriwal reiterated AAP’s promise of providing honest governance to the people of Goa if the party comes to power after the February 14 elections. When asked about the AAP’s electoral prospects when many national political parties are in the fray, Kejriwal said the voters have faith in AAP.

”The voters feel that the AAP government will resolve their issues. All the guarantees announced by us, including providing free and interrupted electricity supply, unemployment allowance, reservation in employment for locals, will be fulfilled,” he added. The AAP has so far declared two lists of candidates for the Goa polls, fielding former BJP ministers Mahadev Naik, Alina Saldanha and lawyer-turned-politician Amit Palekar.

Besides the traditional contestants such as BJP, Congress, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, and the Goa Forward Party, Mamata Banerjee-led TMC is the new entrant in Goa politics. In the 2017 Assembly polls for the 40-member Goa Assembly, AAP had drawn a blank. In the previous polls, the Congress had emerged as the single-largest party in Goa as it won 17 seats in the 40-member House. However, it failed to form the government after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which bagged 13, allied with some independents and regional parties to form the government under Manohar Parrikar who passed away in 2019. BJP’s Pramod Sawant is the incumbent chief minister.

The Congress has already announced its pre-poll alliance with the GFP, while the TMC has a tie-up with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) for the upcoming polls.

Recently, the TMC had hinted at a grand alliance comprising the Congress and AAP to take on the BJP.