Punjab polls: How AAP`s Delhi teams are guiding the nominees in the state

New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has already made inroads in Punjab, all it needs now to reach the echelons of power in the state is by winning the hearts of Punjabi’s who are peeved at the traditional leadership of the state but at the same time party’s charisma appears to be fast fading away with party’s leadership plagiarising ideas from other political parties and selling dreams to voters like the leaders of other political parties.

To counter the Punjab Model of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Navjot Singh Sidhu as well as Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, AAP leaders including the party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal is ranting about cloning the Delhi Model in Punjab which they believe will overnight transform the state into a prosperous one from the present ‘doomed’ state even as the majority of Punjabi's are not aware of Delhi Model or aware of its success.

The latest blow came to the party after the former Member Parliament and once a close confidant of Arvind Kejriwal Dr Dharamvir Gandhi accused Kejriwal of running the party in an authoritarian manner which took the ‘sacrifice’ of several efficient and hardworking leaders. Gandhi who was once the  AAP’s inner circle spilt the beans on AAP’s leader's credibility gap.

In the 2017 Punjab assembly polls, AAP had bagged 20 seats and also had its leader of opposition in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha but over time a few AAP MLA’s quit the party which only confirmed Gandhi’s accusations.

But undeterred by the criticism, AAP’s optimistic and ‘lionhearted’ nominees continue to campaign in their respective constituencies but under the ‘watchful’ eyes of AAP’s election teams which have been camping in Punjab to ‘advise’ the candidates using their experience to contest elections on the ground as well as on social media platforms. 

For this purpose, the party’s IT cells have set up their temporary offices to take on any challenges posed by the opposition candidates and analyse their political strategies and 'guide' AAP's candidates accordingly.

While following the campaign trail of one of the AAP’s candidates who is pitted against political heavyweights in Amritsar, it was surprising to see ‘Hindi’ speaking young boys and girls ‘handling’ media queries put to the candidate. Though they were called ‘volunteer’s, a deep dive into their activities revealed that they were part of the AAP election team from Delhi.

And it is due to AAP’s IT wing that other political leaders have also been forced to set up the matching IT infrastructure believing that these days’ elections were equally fought on social media as on the ground.