Contesting all 403 seats in its very first outing in Uttar Pradesh, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) wants to cast its net wide beyond any particular religion or caste, yet at the same time, it is not shrinking away from saffron hues, as its national convener Arvind Kejriwal last week initiated the party’s campaign with a visit to Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
Party leader in charge of Uttar Pradesh and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said the primary vote plank will be the ‘Delhi Model’ of governance. The AAP has already promised 300 units of electricity free. The subsequent rounds of campaign will be on rising unemployment, decrepitude of U.P. government schools and the crumbling health infrastructure in the State.
For now, though, it is Mr. Kejriwal’s temple run that is making news, not the ‘Delhi Model’. Mr. Singh questions the narrative, “Should we leave temples in the hands of adharmi [sinners]. Should we leave the religion in the sole ownership of those who utilise it to spread communal tension? Is Yogi Adityanath the gatekeeper of the Ram Temple?”
Mr. Singh alleged corruption in the acquisition of a piece of land by the Ram mandir trust in March, and controversy erupted over the same.
“We have been working for nearly two years now in the State. It is a sign that the government is nervous of our presence that they have slapped 17 cases on me, including that of sedition,” Mr. Singh noted.
The party is more than ready to take on the BJP, Mr. Singh said. “On 170 seats, we have already announced our probable candidates and we are going to announce the next round of names soon,” he added.
Importantly, the party believes that even if it fails to make a dent in this election, it will perform better than the Congress. “In the recent Panchayat elections, we got 40 lakh votes and won 83 seats, while the Congress could only get 59 seats,” Mr. Singh said.
If the BJP is the key opponent, would it have been better to work with the other Opposition parties in the State rather than going it alone? Mr. Singh says an emphatic no. “We have a proven record of defeating the BJP. We did it twice in Delhi. And whichever State we have fought in, the BJP has lost, be it Rajasthan or Punjab. In Goa too they lost but managed to form the government through the backdoor. And in U.P. too they will lose,” Mr. Singh observed.
All the bluster aside, the AAP does not have an answer to the question on who will be their Chief Ministerial face. In Punjab too, the party has a similar problem, where the AAP’s Delhi leader Raghav Chadha is a more prominent face than the party’s Punjab leaders.
“We will reveal it when the right time comes,” Mr. Singh said.
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