Its competitors busy in crises management, AAP hits ground running with campaigning

AAPs public relations unit has been in full swing projecting Mann in the media and Mann’s visits to the Golden Temple, Durgiana Mandir, Ram Tirath and Kali Temple in Patiala were aggressively highlighted. The party has been holding press conferences and issuing statements of all key leaders on various issues concerning the state like employment, law and order, sacrilege at temple in Patiala etc and has also not missed any opportunity to take potshots at Congress and Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi.

For more than two weeks now, AAP has moved into an aggressive gear as far as its campaigning on the ground is concerned and its Delhi leadership has been putting the shoulder to the wheels in Punjab. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has also made visits to the state and was campaigning door to door in Majitha constituency two days back where newly inducted party member from Congress, Lally Majithia is taking on Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia.

Apart from Sisodia, Satyendra Jain, Delhi health minister, has also been regularly visiting Punjab to canvass for the party. A large team of volunteers of AAP from Delhi has also descended upon the state and these are present in large numbers in every constituency where they not only help the local cadres but at times take the lead. Candidates in the constituencies are being advised by these Delhi volunteers of the party and a close tab is being kept on the progress and popularity of the candidates by these party workers.

While Bhagwant Mann has been travelling across the state addressing small gatherings as allowed by the model code of conduct and the Covid guidelines, he has also been regularly addressing press conferences which assures that he remains in the news every day.

Whether responding to the comments made about him by Capt Amarinder Singh calling him a comedian or the statements of Navjot Singh Sidhu about the dodgy phone poll conducted by AAP to select the CM face, Mann has been at hand to rebut. The AAP teams, which had been functioning from the residence of the Leader of Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema in Sector 39, Chandigarh till the code of conduct was announced, now function out of hired premises in Industrial Area Mohali. The once showroom of an automobile dealership now serves as the headquarters of the party where press conferences are held every day.

The ED raid on the nephew of the Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi has come as a boon to AAP as the party had pointedly gone after Channi on allegations of involvement in sand mining in the state. The state co incharge Raghav Chadha had conducted a ‘raid’ at a illegal sand mining site in Channi’s constituency of Chamkaur Sahib a few weeks back to highlight the illegal sand mining taking place there. With the ED raids on Channi’s nephew taking place over illegal sand mining, Chadha has not lost an opportunity to appropriate the credit for highlighting the involvement of Channi and his kin.

AAP suffered a setback of sorts with the allegations of sale of tickets surfacing and direct allegations being made against its senior leadership over tickets allotted in several constituencies, but the party has attempted to silence these allegations by filing defamation cases and sending legal notices to those making the allegations. This has resulted in the noise over sale of tickets dying down.

The aggressive media campaign of the party has also included joint interviews by national convenor of the party, Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann to several television channels and web portals. The branding of ‘ik mauka Kejriwal nu’ is now being embellished with the face of Bhagwant Mann even though Kejriwal remains the focus of AAPs campaign in Punjab.

Whether AAP has peaked too soon yet again, as in the run up to the 2017 assembly polls, will only be known once the votes have been counted. However, as of now with less than a month left to go to the polls, AAP is making all the right noises and moves.