Fighting its own little battle with its splinter rival group, the Aam Aadmi Party has been forced to change its plans for party’s national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s rally. It has been advanced by a day to May 23 after friend-turned-foe Yogendra Yadav announced his “Swaraj Samvad” programme in Punjab.
AAP has decided to hold its “Beimaan Bhagao, Punjab Bachao Yatra” from May 15 to 30, but cut it short till May 23 — a day before the AAP’s expelled leader Yadav was to hold his Swaraj Samvad programme in ludhiana on May 24.
Political observers believed that the AAP’s move to shorten its programme, aimed at galvanising the party cadre coupled with strengthening party base in the state, came in the wake of Yadav’s programme.
It is believed that Kejriwal’s rally on the concluding day of ambitious programme would help the party keep its base intact and workers together ahead Yadav’s meet.
After Delhi, AAP is eyeing Punjab considering that it managed to win four seats in 2014 General Elections, all from the state. It has already turned the state political battle a triangular contest by pilfering 24 percent vote share of major political parties in 2014 lok Sabha elections.
A sharp decline in the vote share of Congress from around 42 percent in 2009 lok Sabha polls to 33 percent, and that of SAD-BJP combine to 35 percent from previous figure of approximately 40 percent was noticed.
The party in Punjab has been divided into vertical over the Yadav’s expulsion along with Prashant Bhushan from the party. AAP’s Patiala MP Dharam Vira Gandhi, besides many others, had come out in open support of the two rebel leaders.
To rein in the rebellious voices, the party had even shown the door to some of the leaders, while suspending a few. Eyeing the next state assembly polls, scheduled for 2017, the party is working towards its Mission 2017 aimed at strengthening and expanding the party’s base in Punjab.
Party’s state convener Sucha Singh Chotepur told The Pioneer that the yatra would cover the entire state making the people aware of the state of affairs in Punjab, the real ace of the SAD0BJP government, the different types of mafias working across the state. He said that the yatra would cover all the 22 districts of the state by starting on May 15 from Amritsar’s Jallianwala Bagh.
AAP catapulted itself into the forefront in mid-2014 in Punjab by winning four lok Sabha seats out of 13 while facing a complete wipe-out in all other States, but was pushed back into the background much before the year end due to poor leadership in the state, followed by infighting.
The party had failed to keep up the momentum it gained in the State by startling the political bigwigs in general elections, including former Union Minister Preneet Kaur. AAP’s hopes to emerge as viable political option in Punjab were dashed to the ground after the state’s electorate gave a clear-cut mandate against it in two by-elections, held in August 2014, just three months after.
AAP, which had lost two by-polls — Patiala and Talwandi Sabo — badly in August 2014, has already stayed away from contesting civic bodies polls, and also the Dhuri