The newly-formed State Campaign Committee of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has reiterated its stand in favour of smaller States like Telangana for administrative convenience, while staying focussed on solving problems of people.
Fielding questions during a press conference here on Friday, committee convenor B. Ramakrishna Raju said that while they were for a separate Telangana, they were only against the way the Centre was going about the process of creating a new State without taking into consideration the sentiments and views of people from all three regions of Andhra Pradesh.
Asked about the immediate plans of the party in A.P., Mr. Raju said they had thus far received 200 applications from those interested in contesting for Parliament. As for Assembly constituencies, he said they had not yet asked people to file their applications. “We are very new in A.P. As of now, we are gearing up for the AAP’s nation-wide ‘Jhadu Chalao Yatra’ (‘Cheepuru Yatra’ in Telugu),” he pointed out.
There are several problems, including rising corruption, poverty levels, lack of access to quality education, healthcare, ‘roti, kapda aur makaan’ (food, clothing and shelter), for a majority of the population and caste issues, all of which are challenges for the party, said other committee members - social activists R. Venkat Reddy and Kirankumar Vissa, civic and rights activist Jasveen Jairath and Syed Bilal of the Street Hawkers Federation.
Mr. Kirankumar Vissa said that the party’s recent drive had resulted in a total membership of about 2 lakh, including online registrations. The new Campaign Committee is in the process of constituting three regional teams for Rayalaseema, Telangana and Coastal Andhra, apart from one for Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.
