The Aam Aadmi Party has decided not to contest the civic elections next year in February and instead concentrate all its energies on Punjab and Goa assembly elections that take place around the same time.The Arvind Kejriwal-led party had launched a high-profile campaign targeting top BJP and Sena ministers in the past few months, which many believed was its attempt to set the stage for the civic elections. The party’s sudden decision to opt out of the race has left many baffled.The decision to stay out of BMC elections was taken at a meeting of the party’s senior leaders last Friday. The meeting was attended by Deepak Vajpayee, who is in charge of the party’s national convenor Arvind Kejriwal’s secretariat.The party has also decided to not throw its weight behind any independents as it believes that corporators not attached to any big party or group do not pull any weight in the BMC’s decision making.During the last Lok Sabha elections, AAP had contested all six seats in Mumbai and lost deposits in all of them. Social activist Medha Patkar, who was the party’s candidate from Mumbai North-East constituency, polled 75,000 votes, which was the highest among AAP candidates.Speaking with Mumbai Mirror on Monday, AAP’s national executive committee member Preeti Sharma-Menon said the party does not have the bandwidth to contest three elections simultaneously. “We believe in contesting elections where we can make an impact and bring about substantial change. It was felt that we have a better chance to do so in Goa and Punjab. None of our leaders in Mumbai and the rest of the state opposed the decision,” she said.Sharma-Menon admitted that the party’s workers from Mumbai were disappointed by the decision. “They believed the party could have provided an alternative to the voters who are fed up with the Sena-BJP misrule in the BMC.”Political analyst Parkas Akolkar said AAP with its decision to stay out of BMC elections may have just lost an opportunity to occupy the antiestablishment space in the city. “During the 2012 BMC elections, the anti-establishment space was occupied by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and it performed well. However, with MNS becoming increasingly irrelevant, AAP had a good chance to grab that space this time over,” he said.