 "Ashwant Gupta")
The Aam Aadmi Party is gearing up to connect with the voters at the grassroots level and has been holding personal contact programmes with the voters.
With leaders like Arvind Kejriwal, Yoginder Yadav and Naveen Jai Hind, hailing from Haryana, the party is likely to be a serious threat to the political stalwarts of the state.
Talking to Komal Amit Gera of Business Standard, the Convener (Haryana) of Aam Aadmi Party, Ashwant Gupta unfolded the roadmap for Haryana.
How have been your preparations in Haryana?
For the forthcoming Lok Sabha Elections, the party is leaving no stone unturned to strengthen the organisation by holding conventions at the district level. "Gurgaon, Mewat, Rewari and Panipat have already been covered and we may cover rest of the state by end of December if the weather permits and may stretch a little more if it does not", he added.
The district executive committees, he informed, have already been formed in 18 out of 21 disticts.
There have ben reports of party approaching whistle blower IAS officer of Haryana Cadre, Ashok Khemka. Can you confirm?
The Aam Aadmi Party did not send any invitation to Khemka to join the party. We have been saying that we would welcome like minded people. Aap is a platform against corruption and if he wants to join us, we would be happy.
Are you being approached by patrons of other parties.
Yes. There have been a plethora of queries from the ruling Congress and other parties in Haryana. (Indian National Lok Dal, Haryana Janhit Congress and Bhartiya, Janta Party are the main opposition parties in Haryana).
The traditional political outfits in India do not provide space to the workers and many of them are keen to switch over to an organisation where their voice is heard, he added.
How do you plan to retain the party workers and convince rural voters in a state like that still believes in institutions like ‘Khap Panchayats’?
A regular comminication between the grassroot workers and the party leaders helps to decide the right course of action, and AAP has been consistently following this approach.
The rural voters were more aware of the political landscape of the country than the urban voters. The political parties in the state reinforced the dogmatism among the voters in order to capture the votes. The AAP leaders plan to take help of the local people to enlighten their communities about the repercussions of caste-based politics and religious dogmas.
What are your preparations for fund raising?
The party would soon launch the drive of collecting funds through on-line donations and door-to-door campaigns.
"The donations were more or less voluntary till now but we will mobilise our voters to contribute more through websites and personal contacts as it would be required now", he added.
Close to Rs 15 lakh have been collected in Haryana till now.
The sex discrimination in terms of low sex-ratio and honour killings has been a cause of concern in the state. Do you have enough women representation in your party at state level.
We really need to work hard to mobilise more women to have active participation in politics. The response is not very encouraing. But Aap is the only party in Delhi assembly elections to have three successful female candidates.
Once we meet people in hinterland, we expect to come across more women who can contribute to the movement against corruption and better governence in state.
