 "Eyeing funds, Kejriwal to tour key states")
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal will embark on a nationwide tour ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The party looks to capitalise on the momentum that it had gained after his three-day Gujarat tour.
Kejriwal, under whose leadership the party is fighting the elections, will start a five-day tour of Maharashtra and Karnataka on Wednesday.
Kejriwal plans to cover Mumbai, Chandrapur and Nagpur in Maharashtra in three days. The party will contest all the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
On the first day, Kejriwal will be touring Mumbai where he will hold two road shows, one with party's South Mumbai candidate and former banker Meera Sanyal and the other one with activist Medha Patkar, who is contesting from Mumbai Northeast.
According to sources, Kejriwal will meet a few corporate honchos in Mumbai to seek donations for the party.
The former Delhi chief minister and Patkar will address a public meeting at Kannamwar Nagar in Vikhroli.
On Thursday, the party convener will head for the Vidarbha region of the state, which has seen many farmer suicides. Kejriwal will visit Chandrapur, one of the largest cities in the Vidarbha region.
In Vidarbha, Kejriwal would meet some farmer groups, sources said.
The party has fielded former Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) and lawyer Wamanrao Sudaishirao from Chandrapur.
On Friday, the party has lined up a fund-raising breakfast with Kejriwal in Nagpur, according to sources. Around 200 people are expected to attend the event and the minimum contribution would be Rs 10,000. Kejriwal will hold a road show in the city along with Anjali Damania, the candidate for Nagpur seat.
Nagpur is expected to witness a triangular battle between the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and AAP. Besides Damania, Vilas Muttemwar of the Congress and Nitin Gadkari of the BJP are trying their luck from this seat.
On March 15, Kejriwal will take part in rallies in Bangalore. In the evening, the party will host a dinner for raising funds. The following day, he will hold road shows at Yelakanka, Gauribidanur and Doddaballapur in Karnataka.
In his three-day "inspection" tour of Gujarat recently, Kejriwal had criticised the development model of state Chief Minister and BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. There was a lot of media hype around the campaign, as Kejriwal was pulled up by local cops for allegedly violating the model code of conduct, which led to clashes between AAP and BJP workers.
Kejriwal has plans to visit parts of UP, Goa and Kerala ahead of the elections, party sources said.
"Once Kejriwal comes back from his five-day tour, he will head to Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, followed by Goa," said a party source.
Members of the party's Kerala unit said Kejriwal was likely to visit the state for two days in the last week of March. The party will try to establish a foothold in the state, as AAP is perceived as a north Indian party.
Later, Kejriwal will tour the BJP-ruled Goa where he is expected to address a rally.
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