The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), carrying the promise of elevating its ‘Delhi model’ to the national level, had decided to contest the coming local elections in Madhya Pradesh, said its State unit president Pankaj Singh.
“We have faith in voters that they’ll understand our struggle to raise their issues. Citizens are supreme in a democracy,” he told The Hindu . As part of a month-long ‘nation building’ campaign until March 23, volunteers and party workers would visit houses, explaining the policy decisions of the party in Delhi in the past term which, they believed, heralded it back to power recently.
The party had provided a workable model before the country, characterised by access to education, electricity, water and better health services. “Besides, we’re researching peculiar needs of people of Madhya Pradesh. Our pitch here will be a synergy of the model and local issues,” he said.
The whole country recognised the potential of the Delhi government’s policies, as a result of which its education system and mohalla clinics were replicated by several other States. Last year, the Madhya Pradesh government set up mohalla clinics, rechristened as Sanjeevni clinics. “People are now fed up with politics based on religion of other parties. They want politics of work,” he said.
Mr. Singh noted that the AAP’s model was not exclusively urban. It aimed at implementing the Swaminathan Committee recommendations and “offered the highest compensation for crop loss in the country - Rs. 20,000 an acre. Moreover, the 23 rural Vidhan Sabha seats in New Delhi voted for the AAP, attesting to its pro-rural approach”, he said.
The party contested the 2018 Vidhan Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh but failed to secure any of the 230 seats. Even worse, its State unit disintegrated owing to infighting, before it was reconstituted recently.
“In the previous elections, we fought with full force. We’re still analysing where we lacked and changes we need to bring about in our approach. We have returned with renewed energy after the New Delhi re-election,” said Mr. Singh.
