Sangrur as lesson, AAP goes all out to ace litmus test

Learning from Sangrur, when AAP had named a volunteer instead of a leader as its candidate, the party did not want to repeat the mistake this time time and instead inducted Congress’s former MLA Sushil Kumar Rinku and prompltly gave him the ticket. “It was done as he had his own vote-bank besides the party’s vote-bank. In Sangrur , we had lost by a wafer thin margin of 5,000 votes. This time, we did not want to make any mistake by betting for a political greenhorn,” said a party leader on anonymity.

The party assigned its heavyweight from Scheduled Caste community — Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema — as the election incharge in the SC reserved constituency even before naming its candidate Later, General Secretary of party organisation, Sandeep Pathak camped in Jalandhar to mobilise every worker.

Pathak launched a mass contact programme under which every single voter was to be contacted. He held a training session with MLAs, districts in-charge and booths in-charge. “We have contacted 16.5 lakh registered voters. Not even a single voter can say that he was not contacted personally. It has been a massive campaign,” said a party leader.

Besides the mass contact, the party also launched a programme to hold nukkad meetings, rallies and road shows. CM Mann took out road shows almost everyday in the last fortnight. Mann, who is an avid campaigner is known for his tireless way of canvassing. Even before the 2022 Assembly elections, Mann held several roads shows and rallies across the state.

Before the Jalandhar byelection, Mann addressed 3-4 rallies everyday and took out roadshows. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also addressed a rally in Jalandhar last week. Mann and Kejriwal both sought 11 months from the voters saying that if they think the government did nor perform then they should not vote for them in 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

A leader said that besides every MLA and minister was allotted 10 villages each and their progress was reviewed after every three days. Boothwise committees were also formed. In the Cabinet meetings that took place recently, Mann told the ministers that “defeat” was not a word in their dictionary this time and everybody had to chip in to ensure party’s victory, otherwise a second consecutive defeat would look bad on them.
“I wish all the best to the candidate and the party. It is a cakewalk for us. SAD was never in fight. BJP and Congress are fighting for their existence. People of Jalandhar are educated and responsible voters,” said Cheema.