Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has become the Khas (Special) Aadmi Party. This is what the supporters of the party who have been through thick and thin in Chandigarh say.
After emerging as the second largest party in the Delhi general elections 2013, Arvind Kejriwal the chief ministerial candidate of the Aam Aadmi Party presented Rakhi Birla and Ashok Chauhan, the unknown faces of the common man, as his stars, but in the race to the lok Sabha Elections, 2104 these faces are taking a back seat.
Star studded AAP now has Gul Panag, Bhagwant Mann and Aashish Khetan, says Pawan Kumar Sharma a disgruntled AAP supporter from Chandigarh during a press conference called by the party to announce Gul Panag as candidate from the city.
AAP leader Manish Sisodia came to the city to announce Panag’s name after Savita Bhatti, who was nominated earlier by the party, decided not to contest citing infighting in AAP supporters. After her exit, Bhatti said that there was a big divide within the AAP, over her candidature and she was not comfortable with the fact that many volunteers were not cooperating with her.
Manish Sisodia said, “Our candidate wrote to us about her unwillingness to fight elections, as she was not ready for undertaking the responsibility. We as a party respected her decision and hence nominated Gul Panag in her place.”
However, there are many party workers who are not happy with this decision. Extreme chaos reigned when Panag’s candidature was being announced and few volunteers of AAP openly showed their scorn during the course of the press conference at the press-club here.
One of the AAP supporter on conditions of anonymity said, “It is AAP vs rest of all in this election. First they set up rule for us to get selected as a probable candidate and then change it on their own. If one raises their voice they are shown the door. It is either their way or the highway now.”
During the Delhi general elections the AAP short listed the names of probable candidates and then public opinion was sort to give out tickets, but for the lok Sabha elections no short-list of the candidates were released.
Pawan Kumar Sharma, a former volunteer of the party, openly protested against the candidature of Gul Panag and spewed venom against Manish Sisodia during the press conference following which he was carried away from the venue. However, he had a point to make and for that he wanted to ask 11 questions to the AAP leader.
According to Sharma, AAP had accepted a list of 31 candidates from Chandigarh and it was decided that one person from this list will get the ticket to contest the elections. But this arrangement was later rubbished and the cash crunched party is now filing celebrities for financial gains.
Sisodia on the other hand claimed such people are not AAP volunteers but planted by the Opposition parties to tarnish the image of the party. Anyone who wants to halt the fight against corruption is a part of dirty machinery which helps to breed corruption, he said. Anyone who is not Aam is Khas believes Sisodia. In this attempt the AAP leader even asked the press to distinguish itself as aam or khas, and after failing to get a reply he said, “Every one who will join AAP in their fight against corruption is Aam and rest all are Khas.”
However, Dr Munish Kumar Raizada, a volunteer of AAP said, “There is only one ticket and it is not possible to satisfy all the emotions. AAP is a cause and a person should volunteer for the cause, only when they are willing to sacrifice. But after December 8, and AAP’s performance in New-Delhi, things have changed and there are people who are joining the party to fulfill their selfish desires of becoming a politician, by exploiting the wave that the party has created against corruption.”
Many AAP supporters, who even raised slogans outside the press-club, differed from this explanation. These supporters think that the party which they joined because they were promised a change is nothing more than an old party served in a new bottle and with passing time, the anti-corruption movement is becoming an elitist movement, with complete anarchy creeping in place of democratic process, which defined the party earlier.
Meanwhile, when Sisodia was asked about the role of the party workers or volunteers, as they call them, and their participation within the party, he harped on the same old music and said, “Anyone who is against corruption, dynastic politics and concentration of power in few hands is an ‘aam aadmi’ and is a volunteer of the party.”
But in his glib talking, he clearly rubbished the concerns of the volunteers who now feel alienated from the party. Some of the party workers feel that they have been used by the party when they were in dire need of support, but after the party performed well in the Delhi elections, it has become a political platform for influential peoples, who have failed to secure tickets from other mainstream parties.