AAP launches mass contact drive across city’s 14,000 booths

NEWDELHI: As Assembly elections in Delhi inch closer, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday announced it will launch a ‘masscontact campaign’ in all 14,000 booths of the city.

“The AAP will launch its mega campaign from November 18, keeping in mind the upcoming Vidhan Sabha elections. This campaign will carry on till December 24 . During this campaign, Jan Samvads [public meetings] will be held at all 14,000 booths of the 70 assembly constituencies in Delhi,” said Gopal Rai, AAP Delhi convener and cabinet minister in the state government.

The meetings, he said, will be held under the leadership of the respective MLAS. Rai also said that so far, AAP has completed three phases of campaigns in the run-up to the assembly elections.

In the first phase, which started on September 1 and went on till October 3, the party held Jan Samvad Yatras (rallies) at each of the 70 constituencies. In the second, the party held 14 zila sammelans or district meetings where AAP national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal directly addressed all volunteers of the party. In the third, the party held a large-scale grassroot-level campaign through its frontal organisations aiming to connect with various sections of the society in Delhi.

“Building on the success of these three campaigns, the party has decided to launch this mega mass-contact campaign covering all the 14,000 booths of Delhi. All MLAS will organise Jan Samvad for four to five booths every day in their constituencies. In constituencies where AAP does not have a MLA, the campaign will be led by the Vidhan Sabha in-charge, along with the Sangathan Mantri,” Rai said.

During the campaign, the party will tell people of the work done by different state governments in Delhi starting from 1993.

“The party will discuss about the work done by the three BJP chief ministers — Madan Lal Khurana, Sahib Singh Verma and Sushma Swaraj from 1993 to 1998. After 1998, Delhi witnessed Congress rule for 15 years under chief minister Sheila Dikshit, and AAP will also discuss work done by that government. The AAP will then discuss achievements of and work done by the AAP government under the leadership of CM Arvind Kejriwal in the last five years,” the AAP leader said.

Rai added that along with the Jan Samvad, the party will also work on the formation of boothlevel election committees through this campaign. This work will be done by 2,700 mandal in-charges that have already been appointed by the party. The mandal in-charges will be present at the Jan Samvad programmes of their respective areas and will take the lead in formation of the booth-level committees at each booth in Delhi.

“The campaign will be monitored directly from the party headquarters with the help of 70 observers, who will work under the leadership of the district presidents. The party has already selected 70 observers, who will be present in all the Jan Samvads held in their constituencies and will report to the party headquarters,” Rai said.