AAP prepares for poll plunge in Punjab
The AAP has started preparing its organisational base with a view to contest the Punjab Assembly elections in 2017. The central leadership has tasked a team headed by Durgesh Pathak, one of the mainstays of the AAP’s organisation building process in the Delhi unit, to visit each constituency in Punjab over the next two months.
A senior party leader said Pathak was given the responsibility of building the party in the state earlier this month and he arrived in Punjab on April 15.
While the party has publicly maintained that it will first assess the “political circumstances” before deciding on contesting polls in other states, sources said it is clear that the AAP will contest elections in Punjab, given the lack of political alternatives to the ruling parties in that state.
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“Currently, a 15 to 20-member team is working with him. Volunteers from Delhi also keep making frequent visits. The number will only increase as time passes,” a senior leader said.
Under the “first phase” of preparations, the AAP team has been asked to visit all 117 Assembly constituencies in the state. “The team is going around each constituency instructing local teams on organisation building. If the party were to contest in any other state, the same strategy will be adopted. The party’s experiences in Delhi will also be put to use,” the leader said.
The team is currently covering around one urban constituency and two to three rural constituencies a day. “The entire process will take around two months,” another senior leader said.
Punjab also holds out hope for AAP as it was the state which gave the party its four Lok Sabha MPs in 2014.
Source:: Indian Express