New Delhi: Amid reports of a pre-poll tie up with the Congress for the Lok Sabha elections, the Aam Aadmi Party is gearing up for the 2019 elections with a much mellowed outlook compared to 2014.
For now, unlike its first plunge into national politics where the AAP contested on all seats and Arvind Kejriwal took on Narendra Modi in Varanasi, the party has decided to contest just 33 seats in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Goa.
The situation may, however, evolve over the next one month when party aims to declare all candidates for these seats by the next month. AAP National Convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will kickstart the party’s Lok Sabha campaign in Punjab with a public rally on January 20 in Sangrur.
Kejriwal is scheduled to address two more rallies in the state on January 28 in Anandpur Sahib and February 2 in Amritsar. The party is tight-lipped about allegiance to any mahagathbandhan with or without the Congress but AAP PAC Member and Delhi Labour Minister Gopal Rai said, “The party is watching the political developments across the state which are very fluid, we are against the ‘dictatorship’ of Modi’, adding, “we will do whatever we can, whatever positive to (strengthen) the voice of the nation against dictatorship.”
Apart from Delhi and Punjab, party Chief Arvind Kejriwal is focusing on Haryana closely. For the past couple of months, Kejriwal, who hails from Haryana spends almost every weekend there propagating the ‘Delhi Model of Development’. Kejriwal is scheduled to address a public rally on February 4 in Charkhi Dadri in Haryana following which the party will launch its door to door campaign the next day.
On 5th, 6th, 8th and 9th January, Kejriwal would be meeting office bearers and volunteers from different regions in the state in Delhi.
Between 10th and 15th January, Kejriwal will have strategy meetings for each of the seven Lok Sabha constituencies in Delhi. The party will launch the third phase of its campaign after a feedback meeting with all stake holders. While it has declared ‘prabharis’ in 6 out of 7 setas, Kejriwal in public rallies in Delhi has sought votes for South Delhi candidate Raghav Chadha and East Delhi Candidate Atishi. The party is yet to declare any ‘prabhari’ for West Delhi where the campaign is on anyway. All eyes are on possible AAP- Congress alliance in Delhi, and if that happens, which ‘prabhari’ will be asked to withdraw.
Talking to reporters, Gopal Rai said the party will appoint ‘vijay pramukhs’ who would be in each of ten households in every booth. The responsibility of the ‘vijay pramukh ‘ would be to push the voter to the polling booth, track voter slips and extinguish rumours in the last week leading up to voting. The party plans to have 3,62,500 vijay pramukhs for the 14,500 polling booths in Delhi, and 4,62,500 for the 18,500 booths in Haryana.
On whether the party is also opening to sharing space with opposition parties (read Congress) in the other states, Gopal Rai said, the party will take a decision after watching and assessing the political developments’. The party will not put up candidates just to register its presence who might end up dividing the anti-BJP votes.
From the ‘anti-Congress’ mood in 2014, the AAP is now desperate to do ‘whatever it can’ to be part of the opposition front and strategy to squeeze the BJP in areas where Prime Minister Modi drew maximum numbers in 2014.
From making a splash and going for broke in 2014, a much chastened AAP will has a significantly diminished ambition in 2019.
Comments
0 comment