New Delhi: With the Election Commission accepting Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s “challenge” that he could “rig EVMs in 72 hours” and the BJP attacking the Delhi government for trying to pay for the defamation case against the CM with public money, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is fighting battles on many fronts. Even as it fights a battle of perceptions, the AAP has rolled out an ambitious plan to win over voters ahead of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections, which will be held in less than three weeks’ time. According to a highly-placed party source the party plans to cover 46 lakh households in its door-to-door campaign.
“We have planned out our door-to-door campaign according to the voters’ list in Delhi. If we go by the list, there are 46 lakh households in Delhi. This year, for the MCD polls, we are attempting to do something that we have never managed to do before – we are going to knock on every single door in Delhi. There are 46 lakh households that are registered vote on April 23 and by then, we want personal contact with every single one of these households. In the 2015 Assembly elections, we could only cover half the number,” a senior AAP leader, who is involved with the MCD campaign, told News18.
He added, “The reason we have never managed to do this before is that we never had this kind of organizational strength. As the party has grown, so has its volunteer-base. Sample this – There are over 13,000 polling booths in Delhi. In the 2013 Assembly elections, our party was new. We were able to place booth agents in only around 62% of the polling booths. By the next year, our base grew. For the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections, we were able to have agents in 72% of the booths. By 2015, many people had sensed an AAP-wave emerging. It is a sign of the people’s faith in us that more people joined us. We had agents in more than 90% of the polling booths. This year, we have enough volunteers to cover all booths and then some more.”
The AAP released its first list of candidates in February and the second list in March, more than a month before the MCD polls. The party feels that this gives them the edge. “Nobody does door-to-door campaigning like AAP. That is our strength. For this reason, we gave our candidates ample to time to go out and meet as many people as they could. By April 1, we had already covered over 20 lakh households. We still have three weeks to go. By the time Delhi goes to polls, at least one member of each household would have met an AAP volunteer. The other parties left their candidate selection to late. In this regard, we will have the edge.”
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