Bengaluru/Bhubaneswar: AAP’s landslide victory in Delhi Assembly elections has galvanised the party’s state units with the Karnataka unit even eyeing the upcoming Bengaluru civic polls to make a mark. Senior leaders of AAP’s Odisha unit said strategies would be chalked out soon for strengthening the party in the state while their counterparts in Assam are mulling an “Assam model” to address the concerns of people as part of a strategy to fight the 2016 Assembly polls.
“Yes we are preparing for BBMP elections; we will be contesting all the seats,” V Balakrishnan, AAP’s senior functionary and the party’s unsuccessful candidate from Bangalore Central in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, told PTI in
Bengaluru.
“Planning is already on; through ‘Bombat Bangalore’ similar to ‘Delhi Dialogue’ that we had in Delhi we will be interacting with people in all the wards, based on the interactions we will be preparing agenda for each of the wards,” he said.
There is uncertainty about BBMP elections that is slated for April, as the government is mulling bifurcation of the civic body. Stating that there is a string of similarities between Bengaluru and Delhi, Balakrishnan said “whether it is bad governance, garbage issues, power problem, water, and road related issues, the issues are similar; so I think there will be greater acceptance for AAP as an alternative in Bangalore.”
Balakrishnan, former CFO of IT major Infosys, was also coordinator of a group called “Well wishers of AAP” that had organised Rs 20,000-per person fund-raising dinner with Arvind Kejriwal in the city before Lok Sabha polls.
AAP that made its political debut in Karnataka aiming big has performed very dismally with its vote count in the state lesser than NOTA and votes secured here lesser than its membership base in the city.
Among different states, Karnataka had raised the maximum funds for the party during the Lok Sabha polls, and the state stood third in the funds collected for the last Delhi polls.
AAP’s Assam unit said the party would emerge as a “strong, honest and alternative” force in the state in a bid to defeat the ruling Congress and the BJP in next year’s Assembly elections.
“We will strongly contest the 2016 Assam Assembly polls. The results of the Delhi Assembly election have shown that there is scope for a strong, honest and alternative politics. We will become that force in Assam too,” AAP leader Manorom Gogoi told a press conference in Guwahati.
He said the AAP would reach out to people to identify the problems of Assam in the next six months and would strengthen the organisation in that way at the grass-root level. “Our main issues are flood havoc, illegal immigration and unemployment. We will work to find out scientific and practical solutions to the problems of Assam,” Gogoi said.
AAP leaders in Odisha said people of the state were looking for an alternative to the ruling BJD and the party would endeavour to provide it.
“The wave that started in Delhi has begun to flow across the nation and Odisha is not left behind. The AAP has been gearing up to take the message to the people of the state through its massive ‘mission vistar’ programme,” AAP’s Odisha unit secretary Bharadwaj Mishra said in Bhubaneswar.
