AAP welcomes NRI team with Bhangra and pep talk

Wrapping a muffler around his head, Pandey pulls an all-nighter with Arun Kumar, an old party colleague, discussing their early days as professionals working abroad. Pandey, who quit his high-paying job as an IT professional in Hong Kong to join the Anna Movement in 2011, recalls his journey into politics.

Over the next two hours, Pandey intermittently calls party volunteers, who wait at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, along with Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, AAP Overseas Convenor Kumar Vishwas and a few MLAs, to receive the team that has booked out an entire flight to campaign for the party in poll-bound states.

“The first time I came from the UK to volunteer for the party and entered the Delhi office, there was no one I knew. I felt a little lost. But when these NRI volunteers arrive today, the grand welcome will boost their morale,” says Arun.

AAP Overseas Wing co-convenor Adarsh Shastri claims over 10,000 NRIs are expected to come in over the next 10 days to canvass for the party.

At the IGI Airport, as the first batch of volunteers walk out, Sisodia, Vishwas, Shastri, cabinet minister Imran Hussain, Tilak Nagar MLA Jarnail Singh, Somnath Bharti rush in to greet them. Volunteers hurriedly pull out yellow marigold garlands and a couple of Bhangra dancers in full gear break into a gig.

The volunteers arrive at the party office on Rouse Avenue near ITO in luxury buses at 4.30 am and Jarnail Singh sticks to fluent Punjabi for his welcome address, while Vishwas and Pandey compared the canvassing to the struggle of freedom fighters. “I have been driving a truck in Toronto for 15 years and have taken a long break for six weeks just to campaign for the party in Moga, my hometown,” said Harpal Sidhu, a volunteer. Padam Sandhu, a chemical engineer who has lived in Canada for nine years, said, “This election is really important to us. If the political system changes in Punjab, it would mean we could return home.”

Volunteers like Rajesh Sharma from UK, Joban Randhawa and Surinder Mavi from Canada, have quit their jobs to work for the AAP in Punjab. A majority of these volunteers will head to their ancestral towns and villages in Punjab, while a few will be posted in Goa.