With the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s top boss and main draw Arvind Kejriwal in judicial custody, the party has decided to tweak its 2024 Lok Sabha campaign with the slogan ‘Jail Ka Jawab Vote Se’.
Taking a leaf out of RS MP Sanjay Singh’s speech on April 4, the party put up a huge hoarding at its headquarters with Kejriwal’s face behind bars and the caption ‘Jail Ka Jawab Vote Se’. That day, addressing party workers, Singh had said: “When I went to meet Bhabhi (Kejriwal’s wife), I saw tears in her eyes for the first time. The Almighty will avenge her tears. The people of Delhi will avenge her tears… Jail Ka Jawab Vote Se Denge’.”
The AAP has already put up posters of Kejriwal behind bars across Delhi and even changed the background of the party office to include the motif. On Monday, the backdrop of the party’s press conference changed to a giant placard with the same theme in the yellow-blue that adorned the party’s flags post 2015.
The idea behind the new slogan is to keep the issue alive and hope to translate the sympathy that citizens may have for the chief minister into votes for the party.
Asked if this would be AAP’s overarching primary campaign and would be acceptable to ally Congress, AAP MP Sandeep Pathak said: “This will be our primary campaign. Kejriwal was the chief minister of Delhi when he was arrested. Our alliance partner is also in agreement with us but it is up to them to decide what their slogan will be. Our campaign will revolve around this slogan.”
CONSPIRACY, ALLEGES AAP
Pathak, who is also AAP’s organisation in-charge, called Kejriwal’s arrest a conspiracy to keep him away from the election campaign during a press conference on Monday.
Calling it the first time that a sitting chief minister has been put behind bars, Pathak listed all the pro-poor steps taken by the Kejriwal government that included education, health, free bus rides for women and more.
“Today, Kejriwal-ji is in jail. He has fulfilled his ‘dharm’ completely. He staked everything, including his government, and even went to jail. Now all eyes are on how Delhi fulfils its responsibility. Delhiites had given birth to this brand of politics and now a conspiracy has been hatched to end that politics. Today, we are launching a campaign called ‘Jail Ka Jawab Vote Se’. AAP will launch a door-to-door campaign to make this popular.”
Minister Gopal Rai said Delhi’s election will become an ‘andolan’. “This campaign will be consummated on March 25, the day Delhi votes. We appeal to all that if you feel Arvind Kejriwal has done anything for you, your one vote will be the real answer to this ‘tanashahi’ [dictatorship]. Open the gates of Tihar and bring Arvind Kejriwal out.”
Sanjay Singh appealed to voters to “remember Kejriwal’s face when you go to vote, remember the zero electricity bill, the face of your child who was studying in a school with poor infrastructure and now is studying in an AC school, remember your sister who travels free of cost in buses, remember old people who are now going on free pilgrimages and more”.
Pankaj Gupta, AAP’s national secretary, alleged that it is because of the party’s growing popularity nationwide that Arvind Kejriwal is behind bars.
Pathak, Singh, Rai and Gupta launched the campaign holding placards of the jailed CM and the slogan.
WHAT ABOUT POLL STRATEGY NOW?
Kejriwal had already launched the party’s campaign for Delhi, Haryana and Punjab before he was arrested by the ED. In early March, kicking off his party’s campaign for Delhi, the slogan was ‘Sansad Mein Bhi Kejriwal toh Dilli Hogi Aur Khushaal’.
A day later, the AAP national convenor, along with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, sounded the bugle for the lone Lok Sabha seat Kurukshetra that AAP is contesting as an INDIA ally. The slogan then was ‘Badlenge Kurukshetra, Badlenge Haryana/Ibbke INDIA ko jeetana’. Soon, the duo set in motion the party’s Punjab campaign with the slogan ‘Punjab Sansad Vich Ve Bhagwant Mann’, with Mann as the face of the campaign.
However, just days later on March 21, Kejriwal was arrested by officials of the Enforcement Directorate and is in judicial custody in Tihar right now. On March 31, at the INDIA bloc’s rally in Ramlila Maidan, the chief minister’s wife Sunita Kejriwal read out the jailed leader’s six ‘guarantees’ if voted to power. These included 24×7 electricity supply, free and high-quality education, free electricity for the poor, Mohalla Clinics and free health services, MSP for farmers as detailed in the Swaminathan Commission report and statehood for Delhi.
Along with the chief minister, former deputy CM Manish Sisodia, former health minister Satyendar Jain and AAP communication in-charge Vijay Nair are also behind bars. MP Sanjay Singh, who was arrested on October 4, is out on bail.
This is the first time that the AAP is contesting as an ally in the opposition bloc. In all, the party is contesting on 22 seats in 2024. As part of the opposition INDIA bloc, it is contesting on seven seats in Delhi, Goa and Haryana. There is no alliance in Punjab, while in Assam, there is still a push and pull between the Congress and the AAP.
The AAP has declared all candidates for the four seats in Delhi, one in Haryana and two in Gujarat where it is fighting as an ally of the INDIA bloc. In Punjab, the party has declared 10 candidates for Punjab’s 13 Lok Sabha seats. However, Sushil Kumar Rinku, the party’s sitting MP and candidate from Jalandhar, switched sides and joined the BJP.
In Delhi, AAP MLA Somnath Bharti is contesting from New Delhi constituency, which happens to be the chief minister’s assembly constituency. MLAs Kuldeep Kumar and Sahiram Pehelwan are contesting from East and South Delhi, while former minister and MP Mahabal Mishra — who switched from the Congress to AAP — is contesting from West Delhi. The Congress is yet to declare its candidates for the three seats of Delhi.
AAP’s former MP Sushil Gupta is the party’s candidate from Kurukshetra. So far as Punjab is concerned, five cabinet ministers — Gurmeet Singh Khuddian, Balbir Singh, Gurmeet Singh Meer Hayer, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal and Laljit Singh Bhuller — are among the 10 candidates that the party had declared. Gurpreet Singh GP, a former Congress MP; singer-actor Karamjit Singh Anmol; former Congress MLA Raj Kumar Chabbewal and volunteer Malwinder Singh Kang are among the others.
In Gujarat, MLAs Chaitar Vasava and Umesh Makwana are the party’s candidates from Bharuch and Bhavnagar respectively. In Assam, the party withdrew its candidate Bhaven Choudhury, while Manoj Dhanohar and Rishi Raj will contest from Dibrugarh and Sonitpur. In Assam, the Congress has put up Lurinjyoti Gogoi (AGP president) and Prem Lal Ganju from Sonitpur. The AAP has demanded that the Congress also reciprocate by withdrawing its candidates from Dibrugarh and Sonitpur.
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