With Delhi Congress refusing to ally with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi, the ruling party has started full-fledged campaign in all the seven Lok Sabha seats. Anticipating pre-poll alliance with Congress in Delhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and senior party leaders was avoiding visiting those areas that Congress was supposed to contest. Now the party is devising a campaign schedule for its national convener to launch full campaign blitzkrieg across the national capital.
The ruling AAP in the city is fighting Lok Sabha election on the agenda of granting full statehood to Delhi. Raising the slogan of 'Poorna Rajya Banao Jhadu ka Button Dabao', the party has started its campaign convincing people to support the party to get full statehood for Delhi.
The party has designed a three-tier campaign in the first phase of which 1,000 teams will go door to door, covering seven Lok Sabha constituencies divided into 560 zones, and distribute the Delhi chief minister's letter to people on full statehood.
Besides, 20 'Mini Prachar Rath' in each constituency will tour localities screening CM Arvind Kejriwal's speeches on LED screens, playing the party's election song written and sung by North East Delhi candidate Dilip Pandey. In the second phase, all AAP legislators will hold extensive campaigning in their constituencies. They will together hold around 1,500 street meetings. Apart from this, the party is also preparing extensive campaigning through rallies by Kejriwal. In the third phase of campaigning, AAP will field "star campaigners" in rallies and street meetings.
The AAP had released its list of 15 top leaders to campaign in Delhi. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, senior party leaders Satyendra Jain, Sanjay Singh, Gopal Rai, Bhagwant Mann, Sushil Gupta, ND Gupta, Imran Hussain, Kailash Gahlot, Saurabh Bhardwaj, Rajendra Pal Gautam, Rakhi Birla, Jarnal Singh and Shahnaz Hindustan are among the leaders who will campaign for the party.
A senior AAP leader said that the party will also force Congress and BJP to clear their stand on the issue of full statehood by holding regular 'gherao' of leaders and offices of the two parties.
The demand to give the city full statehood status has been pending for two decades with the BJP's Madan Lal Khurana Government making the first pitch in 1998. Now, the AAP has raised the issue again but the opposition the BJP and the Congress are against it. Elections to the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi will be held on May 12. The results will be declared with the rest of the country on May 23.