Omprakash Thakur
After forming the government in Punjab with a huge majority, now the Aam Aadmi Party has made plans to climb the mountain. These plans will be successful, at least for now it is not possible. Although Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal is going to start the election of Aam Aadmi Party in the state from Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur’s home district Mandi on April 6, but the biggest challenge before him is to choose the faces for the party. After roaming around in the Aam Aadmi Party, only the bitter leaders of Congress and BJP are joining. The faces that are coming out so far are some staff leaders and some retired officers who are looking for a place for themselves after retirement. In such a situation, this is the biggest challenge before the party.
There is also no strong organization of Aam Aadmi Party in the state. Despite this, the Aam Aadmi Party has definitely made a plan to climb the mountains of Himachal. After the victory in Punjab, he is also very excited and the party leaders are also claiming that the membership of the party has increased manifold through the online membership campaign, but there are still doubts about its veracity.
In the state, the Aam Aadmi Party had launched a campaign to enter the 2014 elections through BJP leader and MP Rajan Sushant from the RSS. But Sushant and his family kept quarreling among themselves and the Aam Aadmi Party kept running from the remote of BJP and Congress and got ruined. Since then, the Aam Aadmi Party is fighting the battle to establish itself in the state.
Like in Punjab, the people in Himachal are tired of handing over power alternately to the BJP and the Congress. Now, there has been a period of complicity between the leaders of both the parties and in the last four and a half years, Jairam Sarkar continued on the strategy of keeping silence regarding corruption matters and now he is dreaming of coming back to power. While on the other hand the Congress has failed to play the role of a vocal opposition in the last four and a half years. There is still an internal war in the Congress over the capture of the party. There have been many attempts to remove party president Kuldeep Rathore. Every big leader of the party is in competition to be the face of the Chief Minister.
It is a matter of fact that the Congress won all the four seats in the by-elections. But after the defeat of the Congress in the elections held in five states, many leaders are battered. In such a situation, after the victory in Punjab, AAP is trying to take advantage of this internal war of BJP and Congress. Since there is no organization of AAP in the state, it is not so easy for the party. Shimla Municipal Corporation elections are to be held in May and the Aam Aadmi Party has announced to win all the 41 wards of the Municipal Corporation. These elections will prove how much the party has been able to hold on to the people of the state.
Now the Congress and BJP leaders are eyeing Arvind Kejriwal’s roadshow to be held in Mandi on April 6. It is not that there is no movement among BJP and Congress leaders about AAP’s plans to enter the state, but they are convinced that it is very difficult to create such an organization in six months to the elections, which will win. In other politics, anything is possible.