Gujarat on AAP's radar, party launches 'Azadi Andolan' in the state

NEW DELHI: After wrapping up the elections in Punjab and Goa, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has now set its eyes on Gujarat which is expected to go to polls in December this year.

With the BJP ruling the state since 2002, the party has kick started its ‘Gujarat Azadi Andolan’, a two-month long political campaign across all 182 assembly seats.

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According to AAP leaders, the campaign will essentially train its guns on BJP national president Amit Shah. Delhi MLA Gulab Singh Yadav, who is in-charge of Gujarat Affairs in AAP said that the campaign is aimed at ‘freeing the people of Gujarat from the fear, corruption, injustice and exploitation prevalent under the present government.’

“Everything works at the command of Shah who micro manages everything -from politics to trade- in Gujarat. AAP wants to end that,” he said.

The campaign will end on March 26.

Even though party honcho Arvind Kejriwal has visited the state twice last year and members of AAP Gujarat have in the past one year organised protest rallies and raised issues against the ruling BJP, party spokesperson Harshil Nayak said this is the first full-fledged political campaign launched by the party in the state and is an attempt to strengthen the party’s presence at the booth level.

“We will be reaching out to all 45,000 booths in the Gujarat through this campaign in an organised way,” Nayak said. “We have organised all 45,000 booths in the state in clusters of Khands (clusters of 20 booths) and Samitis (5 booths) and our volunteers will reach out to citizens through local sabhas to understand their problems and complaints against the incumbent government,” Nayak said adding that the exercise will culminate in compiling ‘Maangpatras’ which will be a list of demands and grievances from citizens in each booth.

These ‘Maan Patras’, similar to the various ‘Dialogues’ held by the party in the run-up to the Assembly elections in Delhi, Punjab and Goa, will then be handed over to current Chief Minister Vijay Rupani. With the Delhi leadership currently occupied with elections Punjab and Goa, Nayak said the campaign was only a first in the party’s effort in the run-up to elections.