Though it had decided not to contest the civic body elections in Punjab, for which polling is due on Sunday, the Aam Aadmi Party is scouting for dedicated workers across the State as part of its ‘Mission Vistaar’ and create a pool of people with leadership qualities ahead of the 2017 Assembly elections.
According to AAP MP from Sangrur Bhagwant Mann the party would contest the 2017 Assembly elections. “We are busy preparing an organisation on the lines of Delhi and about 70 per cent of the work has been completed. People in Punjab had voted for us in the Lok Sabha polls and it is our duty to live up to their expectations,” he said while on a recent visit to Golden Temple in Amritsar.
The party has been steadfastly working on a strategy to increase its reach and acceptance within the State.
An eight-member committee of party leaders has been on the job for several months now. “We have been regularly having our meetings. I am the only person in the team who is staying outside Punjab and even I go every weekend for the meetings. We are fully geared up for a big role ahead,” said senior advocate H.S. Phoolka, one of the members on the panel.
Mr Phoolka, who had contested the Lok Sabha election from Ludhiana but lost by a small margin, said the party is clear about one thing – it wants people of integrity only. “In the past too we did not field candidates from other parties, barring say Bhagwant Mann, a man of repute and who had only a small stint with the People’s Party of Punjab, or Harinder Singh Khalsa, who had come from Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee but was a known social figure”.
The reason behind not taking in people from other parties is that AAP does not want to fill its ranks with the same kind of politicians and adopting the same kind of polity it has risen opposing. Mr Phoolka said: “We are looking for those who have been into some kind of social activity and who have an inclination towards socialism”.
The eight-member team comprises convener of the State unit Sucha Singh Chhotepur, Yamini Gomar, who was the party candidate from Hoshiarpur, Punjab AAP spokesperson Manjit Singh, and the four sitting MPs – Harinder Singh Khalsa from Fatehgarh Sahib (SC), Bhagwant Mann from Sangrur, Dr. Dharam Vira Gandhi from Patiala and Prof Sadhu Singh from Faridkot (SC).
