Two years ago, the Aam Aadmi Party entered Punjab with a bang. It won four seats in the Lok Sabha elections, riding on the support of people who were fed up with the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal. With assembly elections round the corner, the AAP is eyeing more anti-SAD votes, and trying to drive home the message that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal are colluding with the Congress to defeat it. The message is that, this time round, it is AAP versus the rest.
AAP workers have stuck to their campaign style of two years ago—holding “micro” rallies and street-corner meetings, and door-to-door canvassing for votes. For good measure, they have also thrown in spoof performances and street plays. Their campaign is aggressive and, often, brash.
The AAP seems so confident that its convener, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, announced a timeframe on January 17. The party, he said, would be declared the winner on March 11, form government by March 22, and put power minister Bikram Singh Majithia behind bars on April 15. The AAP says Majithia, who is Sukhbir’s brother-in-law, is behind the drug menace in the state.
The party has released a host of manifestos, each addressing a distinct constituency—the young and the old, farmers and traders, businessmen and NRIs, dalits and handicapped. The manifestos talk of the Delhi model, in much the same way Narendra Modi spoke of the Gujarat model when he was campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections. They speak of eradicating the drug menace, wiping out unemployment and ending the mafia raj in every field, from transport to inspections. Crowds at AAP rallies are particularly enthused when, after promising to weed out the drug menace and punish the guilty, the AAP leaders say they will throw out the Akalis.
“We launched our first manifesto sometime in August-September,” said Chander Suta Dogra, AAP spokesperson in Punjab. “The Badals have picked up points from it and have been trying to implement them in the past few months after sleeping for the past 10 years.”
She points to their promise of setting up free Pind Sehat clinics (village health centres), modelled after the successful mohalla clinics in Delhi. “Sukhbir has set up 1,900 [such clinics] in the past three months,” said Dogra. “But they are only structures without doctors or medicines.”
Its big victory in 2014 helped AAP capture the imagination of a sizeable section of Punjabis, particularly in the southern parts of the state. A year ago, however, infighting broke out. Members began levelling corruption charges against each other, casting a shadow on the party’s prospects in the assembly elections. When the infighting worsened, Kejriwal intervened and appointed leaders and workers from Delhi to key party posts in the state, giving state leaders the impression that they were being sidelined. Dharamvira Gandhi, former MP from Patiala, and Sucha Singh Chhotepur, former state convener of the party, have floated their own parties.
But, as Kejriwal told a recent press conference, the majority of 117 candidates the AAP has fielded are Sikhs. For good measure, Kejriwal and party workers gave up their standard white Gandhi cap with the “main aam aadmi hoon” slogans and took to wearing colourful turbans, so as to connect with the voters and prevent the Badals from asking how the topiwalas would enter Punjab. Apparently, the idea came from party strategist Sanjay Singh.
From a party that did not know how to address the controversy surrounding the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal project, the AAP has come a long way in Punjab. The SYL issue gathers momentum every time there is an election in the state. Kejriwal has said that his party would examine the issue in detail, and protect the interests of the state. Still, that has not stopped SAD leaders from going around the countryside telling people that the AAP’s interest in Punjab is for two reasons: to get water for Delhi, and for Kejriwal to enjoy the full powers of a chief minister, which he cannot do in Delhi because his powers there are curtailed by the Union government.
The AAP has won over people disillusioned with the state’s traditional bipolar politics and used them effectively in its campaign. In Dera Bassi, it has fielded 70-year-old Sarabjit Kaur, widow of former SAD minister Capt Kanwaljit Singh. Bant Singh, the dalit singer and activist who had refused an award of Rs 1,00,000 announced by the AAP, is now among the party’s star campaigners.
Also campaigning with Kejriwal are his wife, Sunita, and children Harshita and Pulkit. At every rally and roadshow, Kejriwal tells voters that it is for the first time that the Akalis are being challenged effectively, and that it is the AAP that is giving them a tough fight. “We have pitted our top leaders against the Badals and Majithia,” he says. “It is important to put them behind bars for their misdeeds, and ensure they don’t bring their unholy feet into the Punjab Vidhan Sabha.”
The AAP has been alleging that state Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh is hand in glove with the Badals. “Parkash Singh Badal has reminded Captain that he withdrew the cases against him, and now asks for his support in return,” said Kejriwal at a rally. “That is why Amarinder Singh is fighting from Lambi [Badal’s home turf], in order to divide the anti-Badal votes.”
According to Dogra, the AAP has already scored several political victories. “We came to reform politics,” she said. “We said, ‘one family, one ticket’; the Congress is doing that now. We said no to VIP culture; the Congress is saying so in its manifesto. We said big leaders must take on big leaders, as Arvind took on Narendra Modi. Now Captain is doing that finally. We are enforcing political accountability.”
