The consensus may be that the Aam Aadmi Party will focus its energies on largely urban constituencies for the Lok Sabha elections later this year, but party commanders in various states appear to have other plans.
While even the Bharatiya Janata Party is expected to take a long, hard look at 201 urban constituencies across the country where it could face off against the Aam Aadmi Party, the latter, buoyed by its success in the Delhi Assembly election, has embarked on a massive enrollment drive that appears to have energised the party's leadership in the northern states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
A previous celebratory procession by AAP members. PTI
The party has already declared its intentions to work towards replicating the Delhi success in the neighbouring state of Haryana, which will also see Assembly elections later this year. Now, Ratnesh Choudhary, AAP leader from Bihar, has told the Economic Times that he hopes AAP will contest all 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
In Uttar Pradesh, AAP leader Kumar Vishwas has stated his intention of contesting from Amethi against Congress vice-president.
"But beyond Amethi, AAP fever is gripping several key cities in India's most electorally significant state," says the Economic Times report.
Lawyer Prashant Bhushan, academician Sudhir Panwar, a retired engineer and other prominent names are among the likely candidates for high-profile constituencies such as Lucknow and Allahabad. AAP spokesperson Badri Narain was quoted as saying several prominent personalities have approached the party for tickets to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Uttar Pradesh.
Membership drives in both these states have seen an unprecedented response. In Bihar, there were 15 camps in and around Patna, as well as in 37 other districts.
As many as 60,000 new members have been signed up since the Delhi Assembly election results -- the drive was so successful that the Bihar unit had to request the Delhi headquarters to supply an additional 20,000 membership forms.
The numbers in Uttar Pradesh are even more incredible -- a reported 1,45,000 have signed up in one month in the state. AAP leader Sanjay Singh was quoted as saying that the state unit would like to contest all 80 seats in UP too.
A nationwide membership enrollment drive is set to kick off later this week. AAP leaders also decided to do away with the Rs 10 membership fee.
Already, the AAP leadership has stated that it will contest all ten Lok Sabha seats in Haryana, the native state of the party's chief ideologue Yogendra Yadav, who is pegged as the likely chief ministerial candidate here.
In Delhi too, AAP is expected to contest all Lok Sabha constituencies.
Following a meeting of the national executive of the party, Yadav said on Sunday that the party will not field candidates from all 543 Lok Sabha constituencies but will definitely be contesting from 15 to 20 states, an indication that the party's strategy for 2014 is to win a sizeable number of seats to make its presence felt in Parliament. Earlier reports have suggested that AAP will contest from 250 to 300 Parliamentary constituencies.
The other state the AAP is expected to focus on is Maharashtra, where the party already has a large and well-established unit in Mumbai and one in Pune too, as well as start-up units in smaller cities. From the irrigation scam largely targetting NCP ministers to highly localised anti-corruption drives, AAP has undertaken several initiatives in Mumbai. Observers believe AAP will contest all LS seats in the Mumbai region, among the 20 or 25 seats it is likely to contest out of Maharashtra's 48 LS seats.
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