Main aim BJP's defeat: Saurabh Bharadwaj on AAP not to contest Maharashtra polls

New Delhi [India], October 27 (ANI): A day after the Aam Aadmi Party announced not to contest the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections, Delhi Minister and AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj said on Sunday that the main aim of the party is to defeat the BJP and not repeat the "division of opposition parties" like in Haryana assembly elections.
"It is the generosity of Sharad Pawar's NCP and Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena that they offered us seats. But we saw that this is not a matter of contesting elections on seats. This is a matter of defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party. Otherwise, like in Haryana, due to the division of opposition parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party will come back to power and Arvind Kejriwal ji said that we will try our best to make INDIA alliance win in Maharashtra," he told ANI.
In the recently concluded Haryana elections, the BJP won 48 out of 90 seats in the assembly, passing the half-way mark and forming the government in the state. Congress managed to win 37 seats. Independents won 3 seats, and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) secured 2 seats.
However, the AAP did not manage to win any seat in the state with its candidates having lost their security deposits on all seats except one. It was a big setback for Kejriwal who was projected as the party's face in the elections with a poll plank 'Haryana ka Lal' (son of Haryana) as he is a native of Bhiwani district in the state.
Meanwhile, the elections for the 288 seats in Maharashtra are set to take place on November 20, with counting of votes on November 23.
AAP has been in support with the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, comprising Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (SCP) and Shiv Sena (UBT).
Notably, the Mahayuti alliance, comprising BJP, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and NCP is the ruling coalition in the state. Both the MVA and Mahayuti have intensified their campaign for the elections, with all the parties having released the list for most of their candidates too.
In the 2019 Maharashtra assembly elections, the BJP won 105 seats, the Shiv Sena (undivided) won 56 seats, and the Congress secured 44 seats. In 2014, the BJP won 122 seats, while the Shiv Sena (undivided) won 63 and the Congress 42. (ANI)