NEW DELHI: After his party was routed by a rampant Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Lok Sabha elections, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal went into a huddle with his top lieutenants in a bid to recover lost political ground in the national capital.
What followed, in the last four months since the general elections, were a string of populist announcements in a bid to turn the tide before the ruling party goes to battle for the Assembly.
Sensing year-end polls, the chief minister has already rolled out 14 mega public welfare schemes and campaigns, not just fetching eyeballs but also catching the Opposition unawares.
While billboards, screaming the aloud his government’s welfare schemes, dot public spaces and installations across the city, the social media is also flooded with the CM’s pictures.
He is all over the broadcast media, especially radio and television, urging residents to join his ‘Dengue-free Delhi’ campaign, which was launched in August.
As part of the mega campaign to rid the city of the vector menace, cabinet ministers and top government officials have been literally going door-to-door on Sundays, involving residents’ welfare associations and other stakeholders in the drive.
In a bid to keep its hold on voters belonging to lower and middle income groups, the AAP introduced a bouquet of schemes for their welfare.
Putting smiles on faces of people living in JJ clusters and belonging to economically weaker sections (EWS), the CM, in August, announced free electricity up to 200 units.The government also extended the ambit of Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Pratibha Vikas Yojna, a scheme under which EWS students are provided free coaching by private institutes, to include general category students as well.
From laying the foundation stone of the country’s biggest sewage treatment plant (STP) to bringing back the ‘Odd-Even’ car rationing scheme to fight vehicular pollution, the government has been going all out to woo voters.
In an outreach to women voters, the government also proposed free rides in buses and Metro. It plans to enable free ridership in buses for women from October 29.
The government also flagged off the Mukhyamantri Tirth Yatra scheme, enabling state-sponsored pilgrimages for the city’s elderly. The AAP hopes to build its campaign around the government’s developmental work.
Regaining lost ground
In a bid to regain lost ground, the AAP hopes to build a formidable poll campaign around the government’s developmental work and big-ticket welfare schemes