NEW DELHI: The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is taking recourse to everything from art and culture to food to attract voters as part of its campaign for the Delhi Assembly polls likely to be held early next year.
Recently, the AAP organised the Poorvanchal Sanskritik Mela (Poorvanchal cultural fest) at Connaught Place. The fest attracted a huge crowd of this community. The fest was, however, termed a “cultural activity”, but experts see it as AAP’s effort to woo the electorates of the Poorvanchali community. As per a rough estimate, Poorvanchali voters are nearly around 40 lakh and if AAP’s efforts go down well, it can turn the AAP’s graph upward in Delhi.
Prabhat Ranjan Jha, an AAP leader who was involved in managing the event, told The Sunday Guardian: “Many singers from Poorvanchal, including Bhojpuri and Maithili singers, rendered their performance and the show was a big hit. Calling a cultural programme a poll campaign will be wrong and the effort is just part of AAP’s larger commitment to encourage art and culture of every community. Delhi is truly a national capital and people from all parts of the country come to reside here. For them, these cultural fests are heart touching events. In future too, the AAP will keep hosting such fests in Delhi.”
Earlier, the AAP organised several theatre programmes, and interestingly, many of them were in vernacular languages which attracted praise from the artistes’ community.
Himmat Kumar, a theatre artiste, told The Sunday Guardian: “I have been living in Delhi for many years, but I have never witnessed efforts from the government to invite artistes and host theatre performances. Some may call it a part of the poll campaign, but I see it anyway helping the small artistes of the town.”
“AAP was the first party which prompted nukkar natak in Delhi. The government has also announced monthly financial assistance to budding artistes of the town. We have held almost 20-22 theatre and nukkar natak programmes across Delhi and, most importantly, we never ask for a vote or any support for the AAP in the upcoming Assembly polls. Every programme was held to showcase the artistes’ performance and nothing else,” Kumar said.
Praising the AAP’s efforts to promote art and culture, Sonali Bhaskar, another Delhi-based theatre performer, said: “The AAP’s efforts have given us a stage where we can show our talent. The AAP has also announced to give financial assistance to artistes like me. I think these are really a progressive stance of this government which should be continued.”
To encourage a Diwali without bursting firecrackers, AAP organised a light and sound show at Connaught Place. The show was hailed by even many critics as a unique effort which brought down the total use of firecrackers in the capital.
The AAP has also taken the culinary route in Delhi to woo voters. Culinary fests held by the AAP have showcased the multiple varieties of food available across the country.