"Strong presence of regional parties in Hry, Maha led to our defeat"

Senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh on Friday said that the crushing loss of the party in the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly polls was due to a strong presence of regional parties in the two states. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) got less votes than those cast in favour of NOTA (none of the above) in Maharashtra and Haryana and lost in all the 70 seats it had contested in the two states.

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Responding to a question over AAP's poor polls show, Singh said in some seats, the presence of other regional parties was very strong. "That is why our central leadership did not participate in the campaigning in Maharashtra and Haryana. Our full focus is on Delhi," he said. The Assembly polls are due in the national capital, where the AAP is in power, early next year.

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The AAP had fielded candidates in 46 of the 90 seats in Haryana, while in Maharashtra, it had contested 24 seats. According to the Election Commission (EC), most candidates of the Arvind Kejriwal-led party secured less than 1,000 votes in the two states. The vote share of the AAP stood at 0.48 per cent in Haryana, while for NOTA, it was 0.53 per cent, according to the poll panel.

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In Maharashtra, the party got 0.11 per cent votes, while NOTA's vote share was 1.37 per cent. The AAP had formed an alliance with the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) in Haryana for the Lok Sabha polls held in April-May, but after a crushing defeat, it had called off the tie-up. The Dushyant Chautala-led JJP won 10 seats in the Haryana Assembly polls.

The AAP had, in its manifesto for the Haryana polls, promised Rs 1 crore to the next of kin of those armed forces personnel who were killed in the line of duty, implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report and a drugs-free state. The party had promised to "re-engineer" Maharashtra, which, according to it, was "reduced to a failed state."

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