Plans to go national discussed at meeting
The AAP held a meeting on Sunday to discuss expansion plans across the country. Delhi convener Gopal Rai said, “This is the right time to channelise the energy of the volunteers...”
NEW DELHI: Hours after Arvind Kejriwal and his cabinet ministers took oath of office and secrecy in Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) held a meeting with state executives to discuss the party’s expansion plans across the country.
“The agenda of the meeting was to discuss two things primarily,” said Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Delhi convener Gopal Rai, who chaired the meeting held at the chief minister’s residence, which was attended by several state executives.
“First, the message of the historic win in the Delhi elections, which came purely based on development works, should be disseminated across the country loud and clear. This is the right time to channelise the energy and enthusiasm of the volunteers to expand the party across the nation… Secondly, how this victory can be used as a springboard for expanding the party nationally.” said Rai.
The Aam Aadmi Party, after its first electoral foray into Delhi politics in 2013, when the party had won 28 seats, also contested 400 seats in the 2014 general elections.
However, the party faced a rout winning only four seats in Punjab and drawing a blank in all other states.
In 2017, the AAP also contested assembly polls in several states such as Goa and Maharashtra but could not win any seats. The AAP also contested 100 seats in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, including those in Delhi, Haryana, and Punjab. But it managed to bag only one in Punjab’s Sangrur.
After the party’s defeat in the 2017 municipal elections in Delhi, the AAP put on hold the expansion plans and decided to focus entirely on Delhi. The AAP is at present recognised by the Election Commission as a state party.
In his victory speech at the
AAP head office on February 11, Kejriwal, who is the party’s national convener, had hinted towards national expansion by highlighting how the party’s achievements, guarantees and poll planks based entirely on development and welfare could be turned into a national model.
On Friday, Rai elaborated on the party’s plans to contest local body elections in other states, starting with Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, which are likely to be scheduled in the next few months.
Rai presented a three-point action plan before the meeting, which was discussed in detail and approved by the attendees through resolutions in the meeting.
“First, a state-level meeting of all active volunteers and office bearers shall be conducted immediately. Secondly, posters inviting the people to join the ‘Nation Building’ campaign using the missed call number – 9871010101, shall be published in all legislative assembly constituencies in India,” said Rai.
He further said, “Since elections to the local bodies in many states are to be scheduled in the coming months, we want to take this campaign aggressively to the grassroots level, so that we can contest local body elections and get good results. Thirdly, the state leadership will conduct a press conference in the state capitals and later in other major cities to disseminate the message of nation-building.”
In the first stage of the campaign, around 12 lakh people from across the country had joined the AAP’S ‘Rashtra Nirman’ campaign since February 11 by giving a missed call on 9871010101. In the next stage of the campaign, Rai said the party will decide where all it will contest assembly polls.
In his speech after taking oath on Sunday, Kejriwal also spoke about how the Delhi model of governance is being replicated by parties ruling other states.