AAP all set to test Rajasthan waters

NEWDELHI: On a high after its ‘better-than-expected’ performance in the recently concluded Rajasthan students’ union polls, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is all set to test waters in the state’s assembly polls next year.

Led by Kumar Vishwas, who took over the reins of the state unit four months ago as a tradeoff for not quitting the party, AAP will start campaigning for 100 of the 200 assembly seats.

“We (AAP Rajasthan) were being written off as a dumping yard. But our student’s wing, contesting for the first time in Rajasthan, won president’s posts in 12 colleges...” Vishwas said Monday. The poet-politician was in Delhi to preside over a meeting with 500 AAP poll observers who would be part of the Rajasthan campaign.

Having fielded 83 candidates, the party’s student wing – Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS) – won president’s posts in eight colleges in the union elections last month. In all, 50 candidates won posts in colleges, though it could win any post in the universities.

Vishwas, however, said that instead of aiming at the number of seats, AAP, as it has been doing, wants to practice ‘vikalp ki rajneeti’ (alternative politics).

“To begin with, the observers who were present in the meeting have been assigned 100 assembly seats that they have to work on. In next six months, we would also constitute committees that would select the candidates,” Vishwas said. On issues that the party wants to highlight, Vishwas said focus would be primarily on farmers, students and women.