Anurag Thakur hits back at AAP

Shimla, Apr 9 (PTI) The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will lose its deposits on all the seats in the Himachal Pradesh elections later this year, "like it did in Uttar Pradesh", Union minister Anurag Thakur said here on Saturday.

He said though the BJP does not expect any challenge in the hill state from either the AAP or the Congress, it will take every election seriously and try its best to outperform its own results in the previous polls.

During a media interaction on the sidelines of the BJP’s public meeting here, Thakur evaded a direct reply to a question on AAP leader Manish Sisodia’s claim that the BJP was planning to replace Jai Ram Thakur with him as the chief minister of Himachal Pradesh.

Sisodia had recently claimed that the BJP wanted Anurag Thakur as the Himachal Pradesh chief minister prior to the elections as it was scared with the support the AAP received during its road show in Mandi.

The Minister for Information and Broadcasting instead alleged that the AAP leaders did not meet the public during the road show, for which, he said the people of Himachal Pradesh "will not forgive" it.

To a query on Anup Kesari, who quit as the AAP’s state chief and joined the BJP on Friday night, Thakur said the Kejriwal-led party was now levelling baseless allegations against its former leader for switching sides.

“Who was good for eight years, did not remain so (for the AAP) in half an hour (after joining the BJP),” he said.

“Manish Sisodia, afterall, why is the AAP so worried, why so scared,” he sought to know from the Delhi deputy chief minister.

Thakur said more leaders were in queue to join the BJP. He, however, refrained from taking names.