The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday launched its campaign for the Haryana Assembly polls, scheduled for later this year, and the party’s leadership told reporters in Chandigarh that they would contest all 90 seats.

However, the AAP Haryana president Sushil Gupta told this newspaper that the final call on any alliance remained with their jailed leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

The party’s de facto leader in Kejriwal’s absence, national general secretary (organisation) and MP Sandeep Pathak said: “If there is a doubt in anyone’s mind as to how the AAP will fight in Haryana, we will fight to form the government. On every seat, in every booth, with all our might. We have held badlaav jan samvad meetings in 6,000 to 6,500 villages in Haryana. One point has emerged in all of them: Change, change, change. They have hope from their son Kejriwal.”

Kejriwal was born in Haryana’s Siwani and was mostly raised in the state. The AAP drew a blank in the previous Lok Sabha polls there in 2019 when it tied up with Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janta Party.

Guarantees to voters will be announced on Saturday. The party’s campaign slogan is: “Badlenge Haryana ka haal, Ab layenge Arvind Kejriwal (We will change Haryana’s plight. Now we shall bring Arvind Kejriwal.”

When asked whether this meant that Kejriwal would be their chief mister face, Gupta told The Telegraph: “I have requested him several times but he has not given his consent. We have mentioned him in our slogan as he is the national leader of the party and electing the AAP means that we are bringing the policies of Arvind Kejriwal to Haryana.”

On aligning with the Congress, Gupta said: “Our alliance was only for the Lok Sabha and we are contesting all 90 seats in the Assembly. It is the discretion of Arvindji (on whom to align with or not).”

The AAP had contested a seat in the Lok Sabha polls here as part of the INDIA bloc, with the Congress contesting the remaining nine as well as Chandigarh. Both parties contested in alliance in Delhi and Gujarat as well but the AAP failed to win anywhere except three seats in Punjab. The Congress is the leading Opposition party in both AAP-ruled Punjab and the BJP-helmed Haryana where its leaders have opposed any alliance with the AAP.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh told PTI earlier this month: “There is no INDIA janbandhan in Punjab. In Haryana, we had given one seat to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Lok Sabha polls but I don’t think that the INDIA janbandhan will be there for the Assembly polls. In Delhi, the AAP itself has said that the INDIA janbandhan will not be there for the Assembly polls.”