Who should be your next chief minister? Kejriwal asks Gujarat as AAP launches crowdsourcing campaign

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday launched a crowdsourcing campaign asking people whom they wanted as their chief ministerial candidate in the upcoming Assembly election in the state.

Addressing a press conference here , Kejriwal who is chief minister of Delhi said, "We want the people of Gujarat to tell us who should be the next CM. We're issuing a number and an email id. You can send your opinions on it until 5 pm on November 3. We'll announce the result on November 4."Prior to the Assembly elections in Punjab, the AAP had conducted a survey in which Bhagwant Mann had been the clear popular choice. Mann went on to become the chief minister of the state

Addressing media here, Kejriwal targeted the BJP stating that the party has no agenda on what it will do in the next five years and that people are troubled by the issue of inflation. The AAP convener also questioned why Vijay Rupani was removed as chief minister and when Bhupendra Patel was brought in as his replacement did the BJP ask for the opinion of the state's people.

The Election Commission has not yet announced the election dates for the Gujarat Assembly election. AAP made its debut in Gujarat in the 2017 Assembly polls, but could not open its account. After a massive victory in Punjab, the party is looking to spread its wings to other parts of the country.

AAP's hopes in Gujarat have been fuelled by its performance in the February 2021 Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) polls in which BJP won 93 seats, while Aam Aadmi Party bagged 27 seats and the Congress drew a blank.

AAP in September appointed Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha as the co-incharge (Sah-Prabhari) for the elections. Chadha had previously played important role in enabling AAP to register its victory in Punjab and Delhi. The term of the Gujarat Assembly ends on February 18, 2023. In the 182-seated Gujarat Assembly, there are 111 BJP and 62 Congress MLAs at present. Last month, the Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey visited Gujarat and Himachal to review poll preparedness.

The 14th Gujarat Legislative Assembly election was held on December 9 and 14 in 2017 to elect the Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA). The votes were counted on 18 December. The incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) obtained a simple majority with an increase in the vote share in the last election. Despite a decrease in the number of seats, the BJP retained its simple majority in the house and formed government for the sixth time.

In the results declared for all the 182-seated Gujarat Assembly, BJP won 99 seats, Congress wins 77, 1 seat was won by NCP while Bhartiya Tribal Party and Independent candidate won 2 and 3 seats respectively.The Gujarat election is due later this year.