Undeterred by series of attacks on him, Aam Aadmi Party’s chief Arvind Kejriwal is all set to hit Punjab’s roads with his road-shows for the next three days starting Friday.
Delhi’s former Chief Minister would kick-start his three-day visit of Punjab from the holy city of Amritsar, followed by campaigning for the party’s candidates in almost all the constituencies, including the three reserved seats of Jalandhar, Fatehgarh Sahib and Faridkot.
AAP had received huge support from the Scheduled Caste groups during Delhi State Assembly polls, especially the Valmiki community — one of the largest Dalit groups — enabling, although to some extent, the new-sprung party to form the Government sweeping the main political parties, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), off their feet.
In an apparent attempt to woo them, and preserve their support base, the AAP had given them a special place by including a separate chapter for them in its election manifesto for 2014 general election. The party has promised the Valmiki community to do away with the contractulisation of safai karamchari posts along with taking steps to provide better educational opportunities to their wards.
Considering the huge concentration of SC population in Punjab, highest in the country with 29 per cent, the AAP leader has decided not to miss the reserved constituencies in the State. Setting in motion his ‘Tour de Punjab’ from Friday by paying obeisance to the Golden Temple, Kejriwal would also visit Khatkar Kalan — the village of Shaeed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh.
All through his campaign, Kejriwal would conduct only the road-shows, and no rally would be organised owing to “lack of funds”. Moreover, the party unit in Punjab has not sought any special security cover for their president. The recent incidents of repeated attacks on him, for five times, has not dissuaded the activist leader, and he has decided to conduct road shows. “These attacks have only made him more stronger and popular…if these miscreants believed that they are going to get anything out of it or they can succeed in humiliating him…then they are wrong,” AAP’s senior member Prof Manjit Singh told The Pioneer.
He would also campaign for the party’s candidate from Amritsar Daljit Singh.