Is Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) under pressure to contest more seats in Gujarat? The political grapevine in the national capital is abuzz with the word that Bharatiya Janata Party, on the backfoot in the state for the first time in 22 years, would like smaller parties like AAP, NCP and JD(U) to field as many candidates as BJP wants in a bid to divide opposition votes.

To be fair, this is standard operating procedure in Indian elections and all ruling parties seem to engage in this game in varying degrees.

“I have heard from credible sources that the BJP has offered to fund their campaign and also identify their candidates in the state,” says Congress leader and former Union minister Ajay Maken. AAP, with support in urban pockets in the state, is being prodded to put up both Muslim and Patidar candidates in the state, he claimed in a chat with NH.

Maken, who had predicted two months ago that AAP would contest in Gujarat, reiterated his belief that AAP is influenced by the RSS and cannot say ‘ no’ to BJP’s parent body.

“They will not contest in Karnataka because that would hurt the BJP there,” says Maken before adding, “ the same reasoning is behind their decision not to contest in Himachal Pradesh.”

AAP does seem to pop up wherever BJP is in power and has succeeded in mopping up crucial votes that would otherwise have gone to the main opposition, in most cases the Congress.

There appears some substance in the allegation. AAP’s decisions to contest in Punjab, but not in Haryana which is Arvind Kejriwal’s home state, to put up candidates in Goa and make a strong pitch for a ‘Christian’ chief minister, its decision to keep away from elections in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh but jump into the fray in Gujarat seem to follow a pattern.

In Goa, there was a 4 per cent difference between votes polled by the BJP and the Congress. AAP polled 6.3 per cent of the votes and seemed to have done its job assigned to it.

AAP insiders claim that the party has strong support in approximately 25 urban constituencies in Gujarat, where it will put up a good show. Most of these constituencies, significantly, have sizeable Muslim voters. But these sources also admit that the party is under pressure from the BJP to field many more candidates, as many as 150 of them.

The NCP and the JD(U) are similarly getting ready to contest in Gujarat. NCP leader Praful Patel, who had cosied up to the BJP and reminded JD(U) MLA in Gujarat, Chhotubhai Vasava, to vote for the BJP in the Rajya Sabha election in August, has begun criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Government at the Centre. Once again, the attempt appears to make dents into the anti-BJP votes.