With the issue of corruption taking centre stage, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Congress and the ruling BJP slugged it out at political rallies in Haryana on Sunday to set the election pitch ahead of polls to civic bodies slated for June 19.
Buoyed with its win in the Punjab Assembly elections, the AAP has been stepping up efforts to pose a challenge to the ruling BJP in Haryana. Delhi Chief Minister and party convener Arvind Kejriwal addressed a rally, Ab Badlega Haryana (Haryana will now change), in Kurukshetra, where he hit out at the BJP-JJP government, accusing it of patronising corruption.
As the AAP aims to establish its footprints in Haryana, the recent induction of Ashok Tanwar, a Dalit and former State Congress president, into the party is being seen as an attempt to woo Dalit voters who constitute close to 20% of the State’s population. By deciding to install pictures of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar along with Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh in all government offices, where the party is in power, the AAP has given a message surrounding its Dalit politics. The AAP hardly has a structured State unit in Haryana, while Mr. Tanwar, after quitting the Congress and later joining the Trinamool Congress, was almost subdued. Now, both the AAP and Mr. Tanwar are hoping to gain from each other.
