AAP to take out Tiranga yatra on October 20

HARIDWAR: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will take out Tiranga (tri-colour) yatra in Haridwar district from Wednesday as part of its efforts to reach out to voters ahead of next year’s assembly elections.

The yatra was to be staged on Monday but AAP postponed it by two days due to the heavy rain alert issued by the India meteorological department.

“Owing to rains the yatra will now be organised on Wednesday,” AAP Delhi assembly legislator Praveen Kumar, who is also the party’s Uttarakhand co-incharge, said in a press communiqué.

“The yatra will begin from Har-Ki-Pauri and conclude at Maya Devi shrine the same day. Later the yatra will be carried out in other assembly segments of the state.”

AAP workers will reach out to voters and organise public gatherings at selected urban and rural areas during the march, Kumar said.

AAP chief ministerial face Colonel Ajay Kothiyal (retd) will lead the Tiranga yatra from HarKi-Pauri. Kothiyal had arrived in Haridwar on Sunday evening and taken part in Ganga aarti but returned on Monday to Dehradun after postponement of the Tiranga yatra.

AAP women’s wing vice president Hema Bhandari said party leaders and workers from Kumaon and Garhwal divisions will take part in the march.

“The success of the first leg of Tiranga yatra led by AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal has boosted the party’s prospects for 2022 assembly elections in Dehradun, Nainital and Udham Singh Nagar districts. Politically Haridwar district is also a major focus for the party as it is having 12 assembly seats. Party workers are quite upbeat about the Tiranga yatra,” Bhandari said.

Haridwar district party secretary Anil Sati said, “In past few weeks, more than 150,000 people have signed and registered for the Kejriwal guarantee scheme under which unemployment wages and employment avenues will be provided to the youth of the state, if AAP comes to power.”

Downplaying AAP’s electoral prospects, BJP’s Haridwar district president Jay Pal Singh Chauhan said banking on unrealistic poll promises won’t do any good for the Delhi-centric party. “Realistic employment opportunities are being provided by the BJP government with chief minister Pushkar Dhami already focusing on 24,000 job openings in the state,” Chauhan said. Congress leader OP Chauhan said, “Previous Congress governments in the state had catered to employment, education and skill-based sectors.”