AAP announces it will contest 2019 Maharashtra Assembly election, calls Devendra Fadnavis govt 'colossal failure'

Mumbai: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday announced that it will contest the upcoming Legislative Assembly election due later in 2019, claiming that the Maharashtra government has failed on all fronts.

“Despite the electorate voting for change in the previous elections, the present Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP-Shiv Sena government has been a colossal failure on all fronts. Maharashtra, once known to be to a progressive state, is today plagued with large-scale drought, floods, farmer suicides, agrarian distress, rising unemployment, failing law and order, rising crime, widespread corruption, bureaucratic inertia, lack of service delivery, economic slowdown and the near-collapse of public education,” Durgesh Pathak, state in-charge of AAP, Maharashtra, said.

Pathak further stated that the AAP will provide a viable alternative to the people. “With a view to provide the people with a viable alternative and be the people’s voice in speaking truth to power, the Aam Aadmi Party has decided to contests the upcoming Vidhan Sabha polls in Maharashtra,” he added.

The AAP has convened a campaign committee, comprising of Ranga Rachure (convenor), Kishore Mandhyan (co-convenor), Dhananjay Shinde (secretary), Jagjit Singh (treasurer) and members Preeti Sharma Menon, Devendra Wankhede, Kusumakar Kaushik, Ajinkya Shinde, Sunil Gavit, Mukund Kirdat, and Sandeep Desai. This committee will oversee the process of elections for AAP in Maharashtra.