The Aam Aadmi Party could have performed better in Delhi Lok Sabha seats if its leaders were granted bail earlier and given more time to campaign for the elections, the party’s Durgesh Pathak told The Indian Express on Thursday.

The Aam Aadmi Party and its INDIA bloc ally the Congress contested the polls in all seven seats of the national capital. The Congress fielded its candidates from Northeast and Northwest Delhi and Chandni Chowk. The Aam Aadmi Party fought the polls from the West, South, East Delhi and the New Delhi constituencies.

The BJP won all seven seats in Delhi, where voting took place on May 25.

“If we had got a little more time, we could have filled the gap by coordinating better,” Pathak, who was Aam Aadmi Party’s campaign in-charge, told the newspaper. “Besides, there’s always been a mindset in Delhi, people vote for Modi in the Centre and for AAP in state polls.”

Pathak added that most of the senior party leaders like Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain were in jail through the polls, while Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh got bail very late into the party’s campaign.

Kejriwal was arrested on March 21, weeks before the elections started in the country.

The chief minister surrendered on June 2 after his 21-day interim bail period ended. The Supreme Court had passed the bail order on May 10 in the liquor policy case to allow him to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections. He was released later the same day.

Singh was granted bail on April 2 weeks before the Lok Sabha elections began on April 19.

“We had two fights to fight, the BJP and polls,” Pathak told The Indian Express. “Our leaders were getting CBI [Central Bureau of Investigation] and ED [Enforcement Directorate] notices. So there were a lot of obstacles due to which we could not fight with full force, but still I feel it was a good performance.”

Meanwhile, the Congress on Thursday blamed its defeat in Delhi on shortcomings in coordination and other underlying reasons.

The Delhi Congress Committee will soon hold a press conference regarding the matter, Subhash Chopra, head of the Congress’ coordination committee, told The Indian Express.

On April 28, Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely had resigned from his post, objecting to the party’s alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party and the nomination of Kanhaiya Kumar and Udit Raj as candidates from the captial. On May 4, Lovely joined the BJP.

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