After the historic victory of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab elections, its national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has seen political space for the party in Telangana.
AAP’s south India in-charge and a Delhi MLA Somnath Bharti minced no words when he said in reply to a question “of course, we want to capture power as we are a political party and want to put an end to rampant corruption in the State. KCR is the messiah of corruption. He has drained the State’s treasury of thousands of crores of rupees”.
Mr. Bharti said that Mr. Kejriwal will launch a padayatra when he will tour Telangana on April 14 to coincide with the birth anniversary of B.R. Ambedkar. There were some other programmes lined up for his visit. The party will seek ‘justice’ for issues facing vidya volunteers, panchayat secretaries and other sections.
AAP has already claimed success of its agitation demanding regularisation of services of field assistants of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Mr. Bharti tweeted on Tuesday that “Telangana government takes U-turn after AAP’s protests. Reinstates 7,651 field assistants. We demand KCR government to pay ₹1 crore compensation to those who died agitating”. “Will extensively take up the issue of village revenue assistants (VRAs) in our padayatra starting April 14”.
Good following
Sources in the party said AAP had good following not only in Hyderabad but other urban areas of the State. Some retired bureaucrats will join AAP in the presence of Mr. Kejriwal on April 14, and the padayatra will run simultaneously in all Assembly constituencies.
AAP had set up its State unit headed by an environmentalist Ramakrishna Raju prior to bifurcation in 2012-13 but its programmes were not a big hit with people. The party contested the 2018 Assembly elections under its symbol ‘broom’ but not with the intention to win, said Mr. Syed Gaffar, a coordinator of internal affairs. The idea was just to make our presence felt, he added.
AAP skipped contest in 2019 Parliament elections but put up candidates without the symbol in GHMC elections last year. The party did not get the recognition of the State Election Commission then. “Now, we are a recognised political party in the State and want to step up our activities,” Mr. Gaffar said.
