As the party faces one of its toughest electoral battles in coming months, the Aam Aadmi Party has sought to strengthen its base and launched its SC and ST wing, to cater to the community that played a major role in winning Delhi in last assembly election.
Speaking at the launch of the wing, party's National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal said that development of nation and Delhi was not possible without the progress of all the communities, including the Schedule Tribe and Schedule Caste Community.
Expressing his gratitude for the support the party received from the community, he said, of the 12 reserved seats in Delhi, AAP won 9.
"We also made Girish Soni and Rakhi Birla, both belonging to the SC community, ministers. This happened for the first time in 20 years that two dalit community members were made ministers," Kejriwal said.
The former Delhi Chief Minister also took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra for his Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan and said tokenism would not help clean the nation unless the people involved in that work get a better life.
"Everyone has to pick jhadu (broom)," he said referring to Modi's cleanliness drive.
"Tokenism will not help unless care is taken of the people who are involved in the cleanliness jobs," Kejriwal said, throwing light on the plight of people involved in the work.
"When we came to power, 500 temporary safai workers were brought on regular muster roll. These workers were on contract for 15 years," he said.
The SC and ST communities had backed the Aam Aadmi Party during the last year's assembly election. According to party's internal assessment, although its support from the middle class has weaned after Kejriwal's resignation, the party has made inroads, at the cost of the Congress, in several areas dominated by the community.
Incidentally, the party launched its election symbol - broom- at Valmiki Sadan, a community which is mostly involved in cleaning purpose, which reflected its support for AAP.
It is to be noted that Modi launched his Swachch Bharat campaign from the same place and had won accolodes for picking up the broom.
Manoj Kumar party's MLA from Kondli will head the SC and ST wing. The event also saw many from the BJP and BSP joining the party.
