Jalandhar Lok Sabha Bypoll: AAP picks up gauntlet to keep Congress, SAD at bay

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, April 17

With about three weeks left for the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the state has planned a micro-level campaign so that they do not miss a second chance to re-establish their hold in the state, after the Sangrur debacle.

All 92 party MLAs have been assigned duties in Jalandhar with each one of them given a task to handle 10 villages. There are more than 900 villages in the Jalandhar parliamentary constituency and each MLA has been asked to give a report to the party about developments in those 10 villages. They have been asked to cover the entire constituency door-to-door and daily give out a list of people they have met and the responses they were getting. Conference calls are being held every morning with the MLAs who are given the party’s narrative on current issues for handling any queries being raised by the voters in poll time.

The MLAs have also been asked to ensure induction of sarpanches, panchayat members, Block Samiti members and ex-sarpanches on a daily basis so that the word keeps spreading around. “As many as 95 sarpanches, ex-sarpanches and panchayat members from the Shahkot area joined us today in the presence of CM Bhagwant Mann,” AAP general secretary Harchand Singh Barsat said after the joining. Shahkot Congress MLA Hardev Laddi reacted to this saying that most joiners today were already AAP workers. “Those from our party who have moved to AAP would return to the Congress in the next few days,” he quipped.

A loyalist of Jalandhar Cantt Congress MLA Pargat Singh, councillor Harsharan Kaur Happy too joined the AAP through the CM despite PCC chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring visiting her last evening. Several councillors from the city and peripheral towns are being inducted by the party on a daily basis. The AAP is so far quite weak in Jalandhar North and Adampur Assembly segments and the party is mulling plans to activate its teams in these two areas. A next target is also to cover every small and big dera in Jalandhar. Already the party has managed the replacement of a functionary in Dera Sachkhand Ballan for a more easy penetration.

“Having won with huge margins just a few months back, our party was somehow very confident of getting a majority in the Sangrur Lok Sabha bypoll. But we are treading cautiously this time and all leaders have been given tasks,” said Harpal Singh Cheema, who is working aggressively for party candidate Sushil Rinku in the Jalandhar LS bypoll.