The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will formally kick off its campaign for the next Punjab Assembly elections in Ludhiana on Saturday, when Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann will unveil the party’s election pamphlet. The launch follows BJP’s anti-drug yatra which started in the state a day before.
The Ludhiana event is expected to be the first in a series of new initiatives, which will kick off in various corners of the state as the party makes a nationwide bid for election, AAP Punjab in-charge Manish Sisodia said. The party will also roll out door-to-door campaigning across the state, starting from September 20, and the party’s 2.68 lakh booth committee members will make efforts to make awareness about work done by the Mann government reached in the households of Punjab.
The campaign is taking place just a few days after the government of Punjab declared a 8% Dearness Allowance hike for government employees and pensioners. An increase in the hike will increase the DA to 50% and will come in two phases of 4% increase each. The resolution came weeks after unions of staff and pensioners held days of agitation about the expected DA payments along with overdue DA and other demands on services.
The timing also provides an extra focus for the AAP campaign on government employees and pensioners, a large electorate in the State. It is likely that the party’s grass roots campaign will focus on the DA’s decision and the party’s overall governance track record.
It has been five years since the last NDA government was formed in the state, and the BJP has kicked off its campaigning in the north with an anti-drug yatra, marking the drug issue as one of the issues it has addressed since it took over.
The campaign soon to be launched by AAP will target the 25,332 polling booths of Punjab, said Sisodia. The party has announced that its staff will have discussions with the farmers, youth, women and traders on their problems and hold voters’ attention by presenting the government’s record in the education sector.