AAP admits its leaders were not experienced politicians

Tuesday, 08/11/2016

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=167840&boxid=59120&uid=&dat=2016-11-08

Chandigarh : Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has admitted that its leadership is not fully experienced in politics as the party was just two years old.

A top functionary of AAP said that the party had no money to spend on elections in Punjab. The candidates were banking on the social media and personal contact programmes, besides the 10 mobile publicity projectors which were conducting 2,000 shows all over Punjab touching one lakh voters every day. These publicity vans were being managed by volunteers free-of-cost.

The party was confident of winning 82 to 95 seats in the coming 2017 assembly elections. An internal evaluation of the party claimed that if elections was held on Monday, the Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) would stand nowhere.

On the other hand, he alleged that Congress and SAD were conducting campaign through hired workers. Congress had engaged professional election managers at a cost which ran into several lakh.

The SAD was reported to be promising tickets to rich candidates who had the capacity to spend money profusely. The ‘sangat darshan’ programme of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal was another way of appeasing the electorate.

The functionary further alleged that Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh “disappeared” in thin air and remained in accessible to the workers and the public for several days at a stretch.

Pooh-poohing the claim of AAP, a media adviser of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Captain Amarinder Singh said, “The Congress would bag sufficient seats to form the government. Pre-poll survey conducted by India TV gave a thumping majority to the Congress.” The Congress spokesman said that the AAP was in a habit of levelling falls allegations without any basis. They were showing their presence only in the social media on the internet while ground reality indicated something else. The social media did not require corroborative evidence which was being misused by AAP.

Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal is on record saying that the AAP leadership comprised criminals, comedians and fraudsters. As many as 15 sitting MLAs of AAP in Delhi had been arrested on various charges. He said the party will get less than 10 out of 117 seats. Sukhbir expected economic development and farmer welfare to outweigh the anti-incumbency factor. He said, “The main challenger Congress would finish with 30-35 seats in the 117-member assembly. He further said that youth of Punjab were very angry with Rahul Gandhi for terming majority of them as drug addicts.”