AAP fights ‘Delhi party’ tag, fancies its chances in Goa
PANAJI: In villages of this coastal state, the catchphrase is “undercurrent” — an unseen drift that Elvis Gomes hopes will crest in victory for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the February 4 polls.
“You can sense the undercurrent, people are fed up of the BJP and the Congress,” said Gomes, a retired bureaucrat and the AAP’s chief ministerial candidate in Goa, as he canvassed support in his village of Cuncolim. “They are ready for change.”
In the state’s population of 1.8 million — a 10th of Delhi’s, high literacy, internet penetration, and a popular perception of rampant corruption, AAP members see the perfect platform for the party to establish its credentials as a national alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“We decided on Goa soon after we won Delhi in 2015,” said AAP spokesperson Ashutosh. “We conducted more than 500 meetings; there is a clear undercurrent in our favour.”
In 2012, deep disaffection with the Congress drove even its traditional supporters such as Catholics and Muslims to vote BJP. Next month, many such BJP voters could gravitate to the AAP. Political observers, however, said AAP was still seen as a ‘Delhi party’ in a state with strong regional parties and a suspicion of outsiders.
“There was lot of excitement when the party entered Goa, but that aura has faded,” said Sujay Gupta, editor of O’Heraldo, one of Goa’s oldest newspapers. “Goans are wary of Delhi people coming and telling them how to vote.”
In the state, AAP has reached out to the same mix of young professionals and working class voters as in Delhi. “Goa’s Scheduled Tribes, for instance, are underserved and outside mainstream political conversation,” said a Delhi-based AAP worker. “We see a parallel here with Delhi’s unauthorised colonies.”
The absence of neighbourhood-level networks is a drawback, but the party has tapped activists such as Oscar Rebello, a physician and former convener of the Goa Bachao Abhiyan, a coalition of activists which opposes rezoning of forest cover into industrial areas under the “regional plan”. “Oscar has helped us tap into a much wider network,” said the AAP worker.
The party’s most ardent supporters are those who say they are tired of choosing between the BJP and the Congress.
“I voted BJP in 2012 because they opposed the regional plan, but then they disguised the same provisions as the investment promotion board,” said Gavin Alvares, a 48-year-old cartoonist and undersea welder. Alvares has since participated in protests against the “regional plan” and donated money to AAP. “I am just sick of politicians treating us like we are stupid. We aren’t stupid.”