Farmers Movement Archive

Beyond Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party looks to expand base to other states

NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party is looking to expand its presence in other states, particularly those that are poll-bound. In the party’s focus are Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Goa, all of which have assembly elections next year. Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia recently dared ministers of UP and Uttarakhand to a debate on governance and visited the two states for the purpose, but the state ministers did not turn up for the verbal contests. AAP now has an exercise under way in these states to strengthen itself both organisationally and politically. AAP backed the farmers' protests and it believes this has earned it trust in its support base in Punjab and will also help it in UP. CM Arvind Kejriwal is going to address a kisan mahapanchayat in Meerut on February 28 supporting the farmers’ movement. About building grassroots in the poll-bound states, an AAP leader said, “While we have strong grassroots in Delhi and Punjab, we have an organisation base in Goa having fought elections there. Thousand have joined us and we have held over 200 corner meetings there. In Uttarakhand too, over 300 meetings are planned in the next one month and have over one lakh volunteers because of the strong familiarity with AAP’s works from people of Uttarakhand living in Delhi.” AAP doesn’t want to spare any efforts in these poll-bound states to be able to take strides beyond Delhi before the 2024 general elections. Among the four states, Punjab will likely be where AAP will concentrate the most. It already is the main opposition to the ruling Congress in the state, having ended up winning 19 seats in the 2017 Punjab assembly polls. Jarnail Singh, one of the prominent Sikhs in the party, has been put in charge of Punjab, with the youthful Raghav Chadha, who has his roots in Ludhiana, as his co-in-charge. “Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP and Congress have looted Punjab and people are feeling cheated. People have seen rule of all and now want to give an opportunity to AAP,” claimed Chadha, who recently returned from a multi-district tour of the state. Chadha and other party functionaries will be frequenting Punjab. Chadha asserted that apart from political activities reported in the media, AAP is engaged in intense organisational activities across Punjab. He said that the party setup, from booth to state level, had been established and people were joining AAP in large numbers. Sisodia invited Uttarakhand urban development minister Madan Kaushik to an open debate on the performance of the chief ministers of the two states, namely ‘Kejriwal Model vs Trivendra Rawat Model’, on January 6 in Delhi. “People who fought so long for the creation of Uttarakhand 20 years ago and had big dreams are now feeling cheated due to the politics and policies of BJP and Congress,” Sisodia alleged. “They want better education and health facilities, better electricity and water supply, and so are looking forward to AAP.” AAP’s Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh, who is in charge of UP, has kept himself busy in that state and keeps cornering the Yogi Adityanath government on various public issues in an effort to capture the people’s mind. AAP has planned protests in all districts on January 8 against the alleged corruption in the construction of the building at the cremation ground in Muradnagar that recently collapsed, killing two dozen people.

The Times of India

2021-02-16

Delhi