Arvind Kejriwal’s terrific bounce back in national politics’: AAP on Gopal Italia’s Gujarat bypoll victory

Buoyed by the bypoll victory of its candidate Gopal Italia in Gujarat’s Visavadar, the Aam Aadmi Party on Monday claimed that the result signaled a comeback of its national president, Arvind Kejriwal, in national politics.

Reacting to the AAP’s performance in the assembly bypolls, AAP Delhi unit president, Saurabh Bharadwaj, said that the outcome in Viasavadar and Ludhiana west, where AAP candidate Sanjeev Arora was leading, has shut the critics who had predicted AAP would be finished after the Delhi loss.

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“This is a massive victory for AAP. Political analysts were saying that AAP would finish as a party. But after the loss in Delhi, AAP is winning Ludhiana West (Assembly by-elections), and we are also winning a by-election in the BJP’s stronghold of Gujarat by a huge margin. I think this is a major victory. A few people used to say that Arvind Kejriwal would be sidelined in national politics; this is a terrific bounce back,” he said.

In Gujarat’s Visavdar constituency, AAP candidate Gopal Italia won with a margin of 17,554 votes against the BJP’s Kirit Patel. Congress leader Nitin Ranpariya finished third.

In Punjab’s Ludhiana West, AAP candidate Sanjeev Arora was leading against his Congress rival Bharat Bushan Ashu by a margin of 4,748 votes. Jiwan Gupta of the BJP was distant third. However, five rounds of counting were left.

Addressing the speculations around Kejriwal’s likely move to go to the Rajya Sabha, Bhardwaj said the decision will be taken by the party leadership.

“The reason being the candidature of Sanjeev Arora was that as a Rajya Sabha MP, he did a lot of work in Ludhiana. He is very famous in Ludhiana for his social work. People like him. It was also Sanjeev Arora’s desire to serve Ludhiana by working with the government as an MLA. So, the party gave him that responsibility. He is winning comfortably. Arvind ji has said that he can be given a bigger responsibility in the Punjab Government. As far as the Rajya Sabha seat is concerned, the leadership, the PAC will sit together, discuss and send a good candidate,” he added.