AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, out on bail in Delhi excise case, will begin campaigning across eleven districts of the poll-bound Haryana from Friday that are largely seen as non-Jat belt as the Delhi and Punjab ruling party tries to tap into the BJP’s catchment votes of the most backwards and Dalits.

The Haryana elections will be the first test for Kejriwal himself who seeks to reinvent himself to shrug off the taint on himself due to corruption cases filed against him by the BJP-led NDA government at the centre.

Because of that, he is trying to embrace ‘aam admi’ profile again by giving up the CM house and security, ahead of the bigger battle of Delhi Assembly polls scheduled in February next year. The former Delhi CM, however, has sought early elections in Delhi.

Kejriwal would not be seen like cutting into the votes of Jats whose consolidation towards the Congress is visible since 2024 Lok Sabha elections where the latter won five out of ten seats, said sources in the AAP.

Jats are seeking to regain power in their hands they lost owing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s social engineering of non-Jats OBC politics that helped the BJP to rule the State for a decade from 2014.

Ironically, after AAP and Congress could not reach an agreement to retain alliance for Assembly polls, as both fought together in the Lok Sabha elections, a perception has emerged that the Delhi and Punjab ruling party’s lone entry into the fray would help the NDA.

This assessment, however, was denied by AAP General Secretary (organisation) Sandeep Pathak at a press conference held on Thursday to announce Kejriwal’s upcoming rallies in the State. He said AAP will cut into votes of all parties in a contest in polls.

Pathak, however, stated that Kejriwal, who gave up Delhi CM post, will participate in 13 events across 11 districts, covering the Dabwali, Rania, Bhiwani, Meham, Kalayat, Assandh and Ballabhgarh constituencies, among others, in the coming days. Further campaign schedule of Kejriwal, he flagged, will be announced later.

‘Will wipe out BJP’

He also stated the BJP, looking to retain third term in office, will be wiped out this time in the elections, since the people are fed-up and are looking for a change.

“Every party got a chance in the past. Some for ten years, others for five years... But, what did they deliver to the people,” he asked.

As the AAP is trying to convert the Assembly elections into personality driven contest, Pathak attacked BJP and said that they are not sure about their own Chief Ministers, indicating at their personal anti-incumbency becoming an issue in the battle.

They changed Manohar Lal Khattar, who is now a Union Minister, and brought present incumbent Nayab Singh Saini towards the eve of just held Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP did not do well in Haryana general elections of 2024, as it managed to get only five of ten seats -- its worst performance in the last three polls.

Though Kejriwal belongs to Hisar district of Haryana, AAP has been unable to make much political headway in the agrarian State.

In the last Haryana assembly polls of 2019, the AAP had contested only on 46 of 90 seats but managed to get only less than 1 per cent of the votes polled. This time, however, Pathak said that the party is contesting the polls seriously and with all its might.

Pathak was hopeful that Kejriwal’s “new” and “honest politics” with proven good governance track record in Delhi and Punjab will help his party to emerge as a force to reckon with in the State.