After Punjab win, AAP hopes to expand in Gujarat

New Delhi: After its historic victory in the Punjab election, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) hopes to expand itself in Gujarat—the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Along with various ongoing efforts, like the “Jan Samvedna Yatra”, the AAP will launch new campaigns aimed at expanding the party’s reach in rural Gujarat. In Gujarat, almost 40,000 active volunteers are campaigning for the AAP. According to party members, Gujarat will see an “aggressive campaign” in the future.
“We have created a WhatsApp group at the booth levels. We are mainly focusing on youth and women empowerment in Gujarat. There will be meetings at 182 assemblies to decide the CM’s face. In the coming days, Gujarat will witness an aggressive campaign,” the election in-charge of Gujarat, Gulab Singh Yadav, told The Sunday Guardian. According to the 2011 Census of India, the number of districts has increased from 593 in 2001 to 640 in 2011, with 5,924 sub-districts. The number of villages has also increased to 5,924 in the state. However, AAP has claimed that several rural villages of Gujarat face power outrage, unemployment, poor connectivity, unavailability of healthcare centres, lack of quality education and so forth. AAP volunteers have stated that there will be several state-wide events to discuss these problems in the future. To connect people with the party, events such as “AAP ka Charcha, AAP ka Gaon” will be held in numerous villages.
“Our Jan Samvedna Yatra campaign has expanded to 10,000 villages across Gujarat to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Delhi model. The AAP will be stronger at the grassroots level in two months. We realised after the last election that the exposure of the party in rural areas was minimal, so we organised campaigns like the Jan Samvedna Yatra. We will also be launching a door-to-door campaign soon,” AAP leader Manoj Sorathiya told this paper. However, sources close to the party also told this correspondent that the party is also keeping an eye on the social engineering of the Congress and BJP. Since Patels are the most dominant class here, so BJP and Congress always try to woo Patels to get resources, as claimed by several volunteers. AAP has also acknowledged that it is having difficulty expanding in regions with low internet access. There are 41 units in Gujarat, divided into 8 main zones. Each zone has an organisational secretary. “At the organisational level, we have main youth wing, education wing, pashupalan wing, shramik wing and so on. At the tribal corners of the state, people are not accustomed to using smartphones, so we have mohalla meetings for the villages,” an AAP volunteer told this correspondent. Sources close to the party told this correspondent that both Gopal Italia and Isudan Gadhvi are prominent leaders in Gujarat, but the latter is considered more popular among the people of Gujarat. There is a possibility that the people will decide on the CM’s face; however, it is too early to confirm anything and the party needs to make a decision on this. Before the Assembly election, Isudan Gadhvi, a well-known Gujarati journalist, joined the AAP. He is the former editor of VTV News and the former host of the popular debate show “Mahamanthan”.
During a press meet, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the party would contest all seats and would act as an alternative to the BJP and Congress in the state. The Gujarat Assembly polls will be held in December 2022. Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann will campaign in Gujarat. The road show, on Saturday, 2 April, is the first major event ahead of the polls, commencing at Khodiyar Temple in Nikol and ending at Sardar Mall in Bapunagar in Ahmedabad. Priyavardhan Shah, a Gujarat-based political analyst, said: “This time there is a possibility that the AAP may cut the vote shares of the two parties and unlike in 2017, this year, Gujarat may not witness a bipolar election (BJP vs Congress). People have somehow witnessed the Delhi model and so it is possible that the agenda of the Delhi model may work.”