The Aam Aadmi Party, the first to launch its Lok Sabha campaign earlier this month, is now in the process of creating a cadre by revamping and creating mass fronts in a bid to emerge as the capital’s only anti-BJP pole.
The party had last week ended hopes of an alliance with the Congress after launching a donation drive with in-charges, seen as probable candidates, of all the seven parliamentary seats in Delhi.
Party boss and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal launched a door-to-door campaign with his ministers on Sunday, telling voters to elect all the seven AAP leaders as MPs.
“We are explaining two facts,” AAP Delhi convener and minister Gopal Rai said. “Only the AAP can defeat the BJP in Delhi. And only the AAP can serve Delhi’s interests. The campaign is to solve the problem we realised in last year’s municipal polls — that people are confused about the division of duties between municipal corporations, the state and the Centre.”
Door-to-door campaign teams circulate a questionnaire asking voters about the work of Delhi’s seven BJP MPs, and ask who has worked more — Kejriwal or the BJP.
The questionnaire also asks: “Do you think that voting for the Congress will cut the AAP’s vote and the BJP will win?”
The team then explains through a pamphlet the achievements of the state government.
Listing the vote shares of the previous Lok Sabha polls, it says: “If you want to defeat the BJP or Modi, then don’t vote for the Congress at any cost, otherwise the BJP will win.” If a voter seems convinced, the team asks him or her to donate by giving a missed call to a number. A donation team then follows up.
AAP East Delhi in-charge Atishi told The Telegraph: “If Delhi elects AAP MPs in 2019, they will be able to provide support to the government in providing more land for schools and hospitals.”
Rai had created booth-level units after he took over the party’s Delhi unit last May. This week he revamped the AAP Youth Wing and created fronts for senior citizens, Uttarakhandis, Poorvanchalis and south Indians — like the Congress and the BJP. “The fronts will publicise our work,” he said.
