CHANDIGARH: The Aam Admi Party’s Haryana unit chief Sushil Gupta Sunday said his party would soon declare its candidates for the October 1 Assembly polls with screening and survey for the purpose underway. He said the AAP will put up a strong fight in all 90 Assembly segments and asserted that the countdown to the end of the BJP government in the state has begun.

“We will build a new Haryana sans goonda raj, unemployment and criminal incidents,” Gupta said at a press conference here. “Candidates will be declared soon. We will try to declare the candidates by August 31. The AAP will give tickets to those whom people want,” he said at a press conference here. The AAP leader said screening and survey of candidates is underway.

Asked about the AAP’s chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming polls in Haryana, Gupta said people will decide that. The party leadership and the political affairs committee will seek feedback from the people at an appropriate time, he said. To a question about any possibility of a tie-up with the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), Gupta said there has been no talk in this regard.

Slamming the Dushyant Chautala-led party, the AAP’s Haryana unit chief alleged that the JJP was in alliance with the BJP when the state government had rained lathis on farmers. The AAP cannot have any truck with them, he said. Gupta said the people of Haryana have decided to back the AAP as they see it as a viable alternative. “Our tie-up is with the people of Haryana.” “The BJP cannot seek votes from people based on their work. Every section, including farmers, employees and doctors, is unhappy. They failed to give employment to the youth,” he said.

Alleging a breakdown of the law-and-order situation and a rise in drug menace in the state, Gupta said, “Such is the situation that the BJP had to change their chief minister.” The BJP had made a bold move by replacing Manohar Lal Khattar with its then state unit president Nayab Singh Saini as chief minister in March, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

Khattar got elected to the Lok Sabha from Karnal and was made a Union minister while Saini won the Karnal Assembly bypoll that was held along with the general elections. Saini is the BJP’s chief ministerial face for the assembly polls. Had they done any work they would not have to change their CM, the AAP leader said. Assembly election in Haryana would be held in a single phase on October 1 and the results would be declared on October 4.