Eyeing a Punjab-like victory in Gujarat, which is scheduled to go to polls later this year, the Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday made party MP Raghav Chaddha as the party’s co-incharge of the poll-bound state. 

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Chadha was co-architect of the party’s massive victory in Punjab, where it bagged 97 out of 117 seats, decimating the Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP. He played a pivotal role in Delhi as well where the party retained the power with a majority in 2020. 

Soon after the AAP wrested power in Punjab, Arvind Kejriwal announced that his party will contest the elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. The announcement was a clear indication of Kejriwal's strategy of his expansion plans to target states where the BJP and the Congress are in direct contest.  

Experts believe that the AAP is trying to replace Congress as the prime opposition party. After AAP's Punjab victory and the Congress' poll debacles, both the parties are now ruling two states each.  

In the past two months, Kejriwal has made several visits to poll-bound Gujarat, where he has not only showcased the Delhi model of governance, but also pomised a series of 'freebies', which have been termed as bogus by the ruling BJP. 

The AAP party is fighting the upcoming elections based on its governance model in Delhi and Punjab. The basis of this is a number of freebies which the party claims as free welfare schemes. Kejriwal has already announced free electricity, free water, free education, free healthcare and a monthly allowance of Rs 1,000 for women in Gujarat.

Today, the AAP chief launched a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP, accusing them of trying to "crush" the AAP in the name of fighting corruption as they feared a defeat in Gujarat polls.

Kejriwal also alleged that the PM Modi-led government has been trying to frame his party ministers and leaders in false corruption cases as the BJP is "not able to digest the growing popularity of the AAP in Gujarat".