The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) bid to strengthen their support in rural Delhi began with party chief Arvind Kejriwal accepting a hookah, which village elders promised would “fix his recurrent cough”. In return Kejriwal promised specific moves targeted at Delhi’s rural population — including the creation of a ‘Gram Vikas Fund’ for rural development and land reforms. In the 2013 Assembly elections, BJP won 17 of the 18 rural seats in Delhi. While AAP leaders admit that their popularity among the middle-class voters has declined, the party is looking to consolidate their support in the rural and semi-rural seats and upset the BJP’s traditional votebank. Speaking at the rally, Gramin Samwad, at Ghuman Hera village in Najafgarh, Kejriwal said, “The BJP looks at the rural part of Delhi as its votebank. They want you for your votes and your land. But they have taken your land and then forgotten about you.” The BJP has traditionally had the support of these villages due to inroads made during former chief minister Sahib Singh Verma’s tenure. Now, AAP leader Adarsh Shastri is looking to alter this by repeatedly using the slogan — Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan — coined by his grandfather former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. Adarsh Shastri is an important member of the Gramin Samwad programme. Meanwhile, Kejriwal promised ‘special status’ to these villages through the creation of a ‘Gram Vikas Fund’ along the lines of MLALAD and MPLAD funds. He said decisions regarding the development of villages will be made by local gram sabhas, who the fund would be given to. He also promised key infrastructure for the rural youth — new colleges, sports stadiums, additional weightage during college admission for girls and new jobs. Kejriwal also hit out at the BJP government at the Centre for wanting to make changes to the Land Acquisition Act and termed it “anti-farmer”. “People in villages told us that the Land Acquisition Bill drafted by the Congress was good. The Congress made it right before the elections because they knew they wouldn’t have to implement it. The BJP is looking to weaken it by making changes through an ordinance. This will enable them to give farmers’ land to industrialists who had funded their elections campaign,” he alleged. Promising to re-carve wards in rural villages to preserve their unique identity and supporting the rural economy through special assistance to farmers, the AAP chief also promised a number Delhi-specific land reforms — compulsory consent of gram sabha for land acquisition, extension of Lal Dora, amendments to Section 33 and 81 of Delhi Land Reform Act. Kejriwal asked people to not vote for the BJP and said he would pressure the Central government to remove unnecessary restrictions regarding land use. “If the same government is there at the Centre and the state, the chief minister of Delhi will be a puppet of the Central government.”
