AAP to field candidates in 13 LS constituencies
From Abhijit Deb
GUWAHATI: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal who is on whirlwind tour of the country will visit Assam by the end of March to enhance the party’s poll prospects in the state.
Kejriwal will be accompanied by AAP’s political affairs committee member Yogendra Yadav and is expected to address public rally at Guwahati.
The exact itinerary of the visit has not been chalked out but, AAP party workers in Assam have confirmed that the former chief minister of Delhi will visit Assam by the end of this month to give a boost to the morale of party workers in the state ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
The AAP’s Assam unit on Wednesday said that the party has decided to field candidates in 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
According to the party workers, central screening committee of the party is scrutinizing the details of the candidate where many eminent personalities from the state have applied for the candidature of the party to contest elections.
The party also roped in senior journalist Manoram Gogoi who was associated with journalist late Parag Das in his famous weekly named “Budhbaar”.
Gogoi who hails from Sibsagar is likely to contest from Jorhat constituency on AAP ticket.
The party is also in talks with leaders of tea community to field them on AAP ticket in the tea belt areas of the state.
Similar to campaigning for Delhi assembly elections earlier, the party is preparing constituency wise manifesto for Lok Sabha elections in Assam.
However, Assam and north eastern states will prove to be testing ground for the AAP. There are few univocal, unambiguous policy response the party has to draft that would largely influence its reach in this part of the nation which is farthest from power center New Delhi.
A clear stand on the question of resource entitlement, land rights, illegal immigration and mega projects development will largely shape its political future in Assam and other states of the region.
As a political unit, the north-eastern region has never been a decisive factor in national politics. The total tally of Members of Parliament (MPs) in the Lok Sabha from all the north-eastern States combined comes to a meagre tally of 25, whereas for the Rajya Sabha, it is an even smaller strength of 14. Contrast this with the number of policy makers from bigger States like Uttar Pradesh, which has 80 MPs, followed by States like Maharashtra with 48 MPs, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh with 42, Bihar with 40 and so on.
In the numbers game of electoral democracy, the region has been largely dispensable. However, the AAP promises to be a party with a difference and it si to be seen if it can resist the numbers game.