Maharashtra Assembly Polls: AAP To Contest All 36 Seats In Mumbai

The Aam Aadmi Party said it will contest in all 36 Assembly seats in Mumbai in the upcoming Maharashtra state elections and has started "extensive preparations."

“The Aam Aadmi Party will contest all 36 seats in Mumbai. In the rest of Maharashtra, our colleagues and volunteers are galvanised, and preparations are in full swing," according to a statement issued on Sunday.

Elections to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly are due to be held in October. The ruling Eknath Shinde-led NDA alliance of the BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP has announced they will contest polls together. On the other side are the INDIA bloc allies Congress, Shiva Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharad Pawar).

AAP is part of the opposition INDIA alliance in Parliament but is likely to contest independently in Maharashtra.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led party runs state governments in Delhi and Punjab. It also has a limited presence in Gujarat and Goa.

AAP slammed the NDA government for not conducting local body polls in any of the 27 municipal corporations of Maharashtra, including the BMC in Mumbai. It alleged Mumbai’s infrastructure is crumbling, and the "builder and contractor mafia" has led to housing and slums as lingering issues.