Switching into poll-mode with elections still more than one-and-a-half years away, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has decided to expand its base in Punjab by setting a target of enrolling 25 lakh members.
For the same, the party has launched ‘Punjab Jodo’ campaign under which 25 lakh people will be enrolled in the next 15 days.
The party spokesperson on Thursday said that the party will use social media, phone calls and about 3,000 party stalls to enroll new members. Besides, the party has asked the volunteers to give a missed call on a mobile number to become an AAP member.
AAP, after surprising everyone in 2014 general elections, intends to give tough competition to the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance, which has been in power in the state since 2007 and the opposition Congress in the next assembly polls, scheduled to be held in early 2017.
Despite drawing a blank across the country in the 2014 lok Sabha polls, AAP managed to won four seats, out of 13, in Punjab. Two of these seats came to the AAP with big margins. AAP candidates won in Sangrur, Patiala, Faridkot and Fatehgarh Sahib lok Sabha seats.
Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal had admitted that the Punjab results were “unexpected”. However, after the lok Sabha results, the Punjab unit of the AAP has been involved in bitter infighting among its top leaders, including the sitting MPs.