 "Aam Aadmi Party, AAP")
The Aam Aadmi Party, the emerging player in the political battlefield of Punjab, is trying to connect with voters through its low-key Bolda Punjab (Punjab Dialogue) campaign.
While the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance is busy announcing freebies for voters and the Congress is pledging to put the family of Parkash Singh Badal behind bars, the AAP is working at the grassroots to strengthen its base among the youth.
The party is organising dialogues with distinct groups to seek suggestions for its manifesto. This is similar to the dialogues the party held with voters before the Delhi Assembly elections. The manifesto team, headed by former journalist Kanwar Sandhu, has six members, including two journalists Chandra Suta Dogra and Gagandeep Singh Chadha, education consultant Gurinder Singh Birring, software engineer Raghu Mahajan, PhD scholar Mohammad Ovais and ENT surgeon Sarika Verma.
“The dynamics of Delhi and Punjab are different and the problems of Punjab are more complex and chronic. The agrarian crisis and drug problem need a concise approach. Education and health facilities are languishing,” says Dogra.
“Our manifesto team organises one dialogue a week and takes feedback from participants. We scrutinise the feedback and note valuable suggestions,” Dogra adds.
“If voted to power, we will earmark higher allocations for health and education. This has been the feedback from voters,” says another AAP leader.
Punjab’s budget is almost double that of Delhi but the Arvind Kejriwal (pictured) government has earmarked 23 per cent of it for education. The Punjab government spends 10 per cent of its budget on education.
There have been recent reports of students passing out of the Punjab School Education Board being denied Australian visas because the examination is not considered equivalent to the Australian Grade 12 qualification. Education Minister Daljit Singh Cheema had to intervene to resolve the issue but the Opposition blames the government for deteriorating education standards. The AAP will issue its manifesto in September, five months before the elections. The disappointment with the present regime is evident from the large turnouts at AAP meetings that do not serve free lunches.
A HuffPost-CVoter survey, released in March, predicted 94-100 of the state’s 117 Assembly seats for the AAP.
While the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance is busy announcing freebies for voters and the Congress is pledging to put the family of Parkash Singh Badal behind bars, the AAP is working at the grassroots to strengthen its base among the youth.
The party is organising dialogues with distinct groups to seek suggestions for its manifesto. This is similar to the dialogues the party held with voters before the Delhi Assembly elections. The manifesto team, headed by former journalist Kanwar Sandhu, has six members, including two journalists Chandra Suta Dogra and Gagandeep Singh Chadha, education consultant Gurinder Singh Birring, software engineer Raghu Mahajan, PhD scholar Mohammad Ovais and ENT surgeon Sarika Verma.
“The dynamics of Delhi and Punjab are different and the problems of Punjab are more complex and chronic. The agrarian crisis and drug problem need a concise approach. Education and health facilities are languishing,” says Dogra.
“Our manifesto team organises one dialogue a week and takes feedback from participants. We scrutinise the feedback and note valuable suggestions,” Dogra adds.
“If voted to power, we will earmark higher allocations for health and education. This has been the feedback from voters,” says another AAP leader.
| AAP’S MODUS OPERANDI |
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Punjab’s budget is almost double that of Delhi but the Arvind Kejriwal (pictured) government has earmarked 23 per cent of it for education. The Punjab government spends 10 per cent of its budget on education.
There have been recent reports of students passing out of the Punjab School Education Board being denied Australian visas because the examination is not considered equivalent to the Australian Grade 12 qualification. Education Minister Daljit Singh Cheema had to intervene to resolve the issue but the Opposition blames the government for deteriorating education standards. The AAP will issue its manifesto in September, five months before the elections. The disappointment with the present regime is evident from the large turnouts at AAP meetings that do not serve free lunches.
A HuffPost-CVoter survey, released in March, predicted 94-100 of the state’s 117 Assembly seats for the AAP.
