Delhi polls 2015: AAP volunteers back from Delhi, confident of Arvind Kejriwal sweep

According to Ajinkya Shinde, an AAP worker who was in-charge of co-coordinating volunteers from Maharashtra, many of them made the plan to take out at least 10 to 15 days to campaign for the party in Delhi polls in December when AAP convener and party’s chief ministerial candidate Arvind Kejriwal visited the city.

“He said since there was disappointment among the Delhi voters due to early exit of the AAP government and that the party had very limited funds as compared to BJP and Congress, the only hope for the party came from the volunteers. It was then that most of us decided to visit the capital,” said Shinde.

According to the AAP’s local unit, the group did not limit itself to volunteer support. They also collected donations for the party and also ran a telephone campaign. “Of the total 10.28 lakh calls made to Delhi voters throughout the country, 2.11 lakh were made from Maharashtra with a major chunk being from Pune. Also, 18.2 per cent donations went from Maharashtra,” said Shinde.

According to Maruti Bhapkar, AAP leader who fought the Lok Sabha election from Maval constituency, said the AAP volunteers had to initially face resistance.

“It was a big challenge for us in the light of the LS poll debacle, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity and the BJP’s winning streak in the assembly polls in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and J&K. Also, BJP had put its entire machinery. We lacked funds. It was only on the strength of our good intentions, honest dialogue and selfless volunteers that we managed to turn the mood around,” said Bhapkar. He said the strategy of focusing only on Delhi and not contesting other states worked wonders.

Talking about his experience on the field, Shinde said: “I personally visited Delhi as part of the initial batch that went in late December. It was decided that since outside volunteers won’t have enough knowledge about the local issues, they will be used in the Buzz Campaign. We used to visit public transport facilities — Metros and buses — wearing AAP caps and talk to locals on broader issues and answer their queries. It worked.”

Many of them are hopeful that the poll results slated to come out on February 10 will be in their favour.
“There’s no doubt that ‘Jhadu’ is going to sweep the polls. Our efforts are going to work and everybody will know it on Tuesday,” he said.