In comparison to its high-decibel sloganeering, prolific candidates, on-demand volunteers and frequent visits by Aaam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal during the general assembly in 2014, in the upcoming assembly polls the party has sobered down in its political engagements in Karnataka. In fact, not many realised that the party had released the first list of candidates, until the second-one came along.
Post 2014-poll debacle, subsequent defeats across other states such as Punjab, Goa, Meghalaya, abrupt exit by the former members-including party’s prominent faces in Karnataka like Ravi Krishna Reddy, who this time has decided to contest independently from Vijayanagara Constituency- the party is trying to revive itself from the grass root level.
Speaking to the Newskarnataka, AAP’s State Convener Prithvi Reddy said that irrespective of changed realities, the party would continue to carry forward its narrative of alternate politics to people. “All of our candidates are from humble beginnings. Some of them don’t have any former political affiliation but are subject experts from different domain. We want to represent those who otherwise shy away from election, as though politics is a bad word”, Prithvi said.
The party that has skimmed wide variety of candidates from business, social work, medical science and also former IAS officers on its existing list, including IT magnate Lingaraj Urs, grandson of former Karnataka CM and Congress leader Devaraj Urs. The relatively 28 unknown faces in the political circle are not seen launching full-fledged campaign unlike their counterparts. “AAP always believes in using low cost, low-advertisement campaign. We don’t indulge in buying votes, creating communal or caste divide. We don’t position candidates based on their winnablity like other parties but rather on their merit. The candidates use whatever means is available to them to spread the word of our candidates. Rest is upto the people”, he says.
According to the AAP state convener, through its performance the Delhi’s AAP government has given the “proof of concept” of “Honest politics and Good Governance” and AAP believes it would instill confidence in people to vote for them in Karnataka as well. “If not in power, we are also ready to play a role of constructive opposition”, he said.
Unlike the foolhardy move by the party to contest all 28 constituencies in 2014, subsequently all its candidates losing their deposit, the party has wised-up this time. Of the 224 constituencies, the party will test its mettle in 60-70 seats. “We don’t have in-fight among our ticket aspirants unlike other parties. We want to have at least one candidate from every district. Although we wanted to contest for atleast half of the seats, our search committees were finding a dearth of aspirants, who are in sync with our type of politics and ideology”, Reddy said.
Meanwhile, as the BJP and Congress leaders from the central leadership are flying-in and out of the state campaigning for the state team, the supporters of AAP may have to wait for some more time as Kejriwal will visit the state only in the first week of May. “We will have more national leaders to address the crowd in coming days. At this point we won’t be able to share the details without knowing the schedule”, Prithvi Reddy said.
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