Ahmedabad/New Delhi, Dec 8 (PTI): All eyes are on the Aam Aadmi Party as the counting of votes polled in the Gujarat Assembly elections begins at 8 am on Thursday as the outcome will determine the fate of the Arvind Kejriwal led party’s national ambition.
Aiming to breach the BJP’s Gujarat bastion, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) fielded its candidate to contest all 182 assembly seats and carried out a high decibel campaign in the run-up to the polls in Gujarat.
During the campaign, the party positioned itself and its national convenor Kejriwal as the sole challenger of the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi respectively.
The results of the high stakes polls in Modi’s home state will determine whether the AAP could successfully elbow out the Congress as number two in the tally and emerge as the principal challenger of the BJP.
The feat, if achieved, will also determine the role that Kejriwal would play in stopping the Modi juggernaut in 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Already recognised as the state party in Delhi, Punjab and Goa, the AAP is just a state away from earning the national party status.
To earn a national party status, a political outfit needs to be recognized in at least four states, and to be recognised as a state party, it needs to win at least two seats and 6 per cent of votes polled in the Assembly election.
