For all the attention that it is garnering at the national level, the Aam Aadmi Party is yet to make its presence felt in the Tiruchi Lok Sabha constituency.
Hampered by manpower and resource constraints, the party is yet to intensify its campaign in the constituency. Having fielded P.Ravi, a pattimandram speaker who has contested three Lok Sabha elections in the past as an Independent, the party has largely confined itself to door-to-door canvassing in some parts of the city.
Although the party organisers, during a recent meeting in the city, talked about creating an organisational structure at the block level, the party depends mostly on a group of about 50 members, who have to contribute their time, energy and even their own money to take forward the campaign.
Being a vast constituency that spreads from Srirangam to Pudukottai and Gandharvakottai, the party has a big turf to cover, which is proving to be tough grind even for candidates of major political parties.
Mr.Ravi and other members of the party point out that they were up against big players who are spending heavily. Donations have been hard to come buy locally, unlike at the national level.
“Money is indeed a constraint. But we have committed members who are spending out of their pockets to campaign for me. We will intensify our campaign over the next 10 days,” says Mr.Ravi, who declared movable assets worth Rs.42,364 including Rs.26,500 in cash and a moped worth Rs.14,000. He has no immovable asset.
Party members said they have just drawn up a schedule to cover all the six Assembly segments. “So far we have doing door-to-door campaign and the response has been good. We are planning street-wise campaign for at least two days in each Assembly segment. We plan to spend about three days each in Gandharvakottai and Pudukottai segments to reach out to the rural masses,” said B.Radhakrishnan, district campaign head of the party.
While candidates of the leading parties have leaders and star campaigners, no leader of the Aam Aadmi Party have come for campaign here so far.
The party members were earlier expecting party convenor Aravind Kejriwal to visit the city but have been disappointed now that it has been made clear he is unlikely to visit the State.
Senior leader Prashant Bhushan is likely to visit the city, they say. However, Mr.Ravi seems undaunted. “Since I am a pattimandram speaker, members from our fraternity have promised to campaign for me. We will make an impact with our campaign over the next 10 days,” he says.
