To connect with rural voters, Aam Aadmi Party eyes Land Acquisition Act

NEW DELHI: Ahead of general elections, the AAP may be zeroing in on land acquisition as a definitive campaign plank to help it form a strong connect with rural voters, broadening the appeal of what’s seen as a largely urban phenomenon thus far.

The party that arose from the anti corruption movement was able to make itself electable in the Delhi state polls within a year of its formation by channelling the disgust of urban voters with graft and building on that by promising lower electricity tariffs and adequate water supplies.

Land acquisition will be among the top priorities of the party’s election manifesto and it has already started reaching out to industry and the land-rights movement to formulate its view, Atishi Marlena, an AAP member involved in drafting the document, told ET.

“We feelthat a government cannot take decisions regarding the livelihood of the people without their consent,” she said. AAP would be in favour of following the precedent set by the Supreme Court, which gave gram sabhas the right to decide whether Vedanta should be allowed to mine in the Niyamgiri Hills in Odisha. “This is the direction we should head in,” Marlena said.

She was critical of the Land Acquisition Act, calling it “a euphemism for a forcible acquisition. It leaves scope for great exclusion as 16 laws such as mining and highways are not covered under it. We have to re-examine the extent to which the definition of public purpose can be extended and whether land should be given at subsidised rates to developers who sell the same property at market price.”