Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on August 19 announced 10 poll guarantees for Chhattisgarh. Assembly elections are due in the State later this year.
Mr. Kejriwal revealed nine of them at a public rally in State capital Raipur, including financial assistance of ₹1,000 for select categories of women; monthly unemployment allowance of ₹3,000; free electricity of up to 300 units for 24 hours and waiver of pending electricity bills; and ₹1 crore to families of security personnel who die on duty. He said that the tenth guarantee on “tribals and farmers” — two categories that comprise a bulk of the electorate — would be revealed during his next visit.
Asserting that education and health services would be improved on the lines of Delhi and Punjab, two States ruled by the his party, Mr. Kejriwal also took a veiled dig at the government led by his party’s INDIA (Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance) bloc partner, the Congress, which rules Chhattisgarh. He alleged that the condition of schools in the State was terrible.
“I was reading a report. Government schools in Chhattisgarh are in a terrible condition. However, look at the condition of government schools in Delhi. For the first time since Independence, a government has come that is doing so much for the education sector,” he said.
Notably, the State government led by Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel also publicises the newly developed Swami Atmanand Schools as one of its key achievements, with the claim that they have improved the quality of education. The statement comes at a time when the two parties are ironing out differences vis-à-vis seat sharing arrangements in Delhi in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
While the AAP, by announcing the guarantees before the two main parties (the BJP being the main Opposition in the State), is trying to dent the bipolar history of politics in Chhattisgarh, its own electoral record has been modest here. Mr. Kejriwal’s party contested on 85 of the 90 seats in the 2018 Assembly polls but drew a blank.
AAP cadres insist that a lot of groundwork has happened in the intervening these years, with the party having built its organisation even in the remotest of the villages, and the central leadership is deeply involved. This is Mr. Kejriwal’s third visit in the last few months. However, the development and dynamics of the INDIA bloc have allowed the BJP to question the AAP’s credentials in becoming a challenger.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who was also present on the occasion, said that while the party’s capability to fulfil promises or guarantees had been questioned in the past too, it had ensured there was no dearth of funds by curbing corruption.
