Entrusted with the job of driving his party’s campaign for the Delhi Assembly elections, senior AAP minister and the party’s city affairs in-charge Gopal Rai sits down for a candid conversation with The New Indian Express.
What is the feedback on the performance of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government?
We have just finished the first round of our door-to-door campaign, during which we covered around 35 lakh households across the city. As per ground reports, the public mood is in our favour. This gives us confidence of surpassing our previous tally of 67 seats. Our party will record an increase in vote share and seats.
Do you see the rivals giving a tough fight to AAP in the forthcoming electoral battle?
As far the Assembly elections are concerned, I don’t see our opponents giving us a tough fight. While the Congress is a divided house, especially after the demise of (former CM) Sheila Dikshit, the BJP, despite trying its best to run us close, is hamstrung by two big problems that they are struggling to find a solution to. Firstly, the leadership question as the BJP is clearly in a dilemma who to project as its chief ministerial face. They do not have a leader who can match up to Arvind Kejriwal. Secondly, there’s no clarity on their agenda. We’re not sure about the issues they are fighting the elections on. One day they raise national issues and, on sensing that they are not working on the ground, they promptly switch to local topics. While the Kejriwal government has accomplished 100 tasks, the BJP could only manage 2. Hence, they’re lagging even on the work front.
BJP president Amit Shah recently said the people of Delhi want a ‘three-tier’ government — BJP-led Centre, MCDs and Delhi government. What’s your take on this?
Voters in Delhi have seen the state of administration in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP is in power. If one were to compare the work done in these two states to that of Delhi, it is fairly evident that the Kejriwal government has accomplished far more. Migrants from these two states account for a sizeable chunk of the city’s population. Hence, it’s safe to say that the people of Delhi don’t agree with Shah on this.
What are the yardsticks that will determine the party’s choice of candidates?
Sitting MLAs will be considered for tickets only on the basis of the work done by them over the last five years. Also, since September, we’ve been assessing our MLAs on their organisational prowess and the extent to which they implemented the government’s policies and schemes. The assessment will form the basis of our choice of candidates.
Is the party considering replacing sitting MLAs?
Our internal survey has suggested change of candidates in a few seats. Our Political Affairs Committee will take a call on this.
Will the Lok Sabha nominees, who fought hard in the elections, be considered for tickets?
A few of them have voiced a desire to fight the (Assembly) elections. Our party is looking into their applications.
Four-time Congress MLA Shoaib Iqbal joined the AAP a few days back. The BJP has claimed your party is bringing in ‘riot accused’ for Muslim appeasement. How do you respond?
BJP has no agenda. This is another unsuccessful attempt to make an issue out of nothing.
Do you see the amended citizenship law and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) having an impact on the Delhi polls?
If there’s any, it would affect the BJP more than anyone else. The youth feels that the BJP-led central government is peddling an unnecessary and unconstitutional agenda. Instead of finding a solution to joblessness, they’re focusing on implementing such laws. We saw what happened in Assam where the NRC was implemented. Almost 5 lakh Muslims and 14 lakh Hindus were excluded from the final NRC draft. It has created an ambience of fear here in Delhi. People fear the BJP will implement the NRC, if elected.
In Delhi, the Muslims hold sway in as many as 10 seats. Do you sense a split in Muslim votes between the AAP and the Congress?
One can’t be sure if the Congress will manage even one seat. People of Delhi want a government, which will work for peace and welfare of all. And, that is precisely what AAP intends to give them.
Any alliance with Congress likely?
There’s simply no need for an alliance in the Assembly elections. We’ll secure a comfortable majority on our own.
Jan Lokpal and Swaraj Act, the key promises made in the AAP’s 2015 manifesto, haven’t been fulfilled. Why so?
We passed both the laws in Delhi Assembly. But, as is the norm here, we can’t implement our laws without the Centre’s intervention. For the last four-and-a-half years, we’ve been waiting on the Centre to help us implement these laws. We’ll take it up with the Centre again, if elected.
What has been your experience as a cabinet minister?
In Delhi, the elected government lacks the power to push its agenda. In the first three years of our government, we struggled a lot to implement our plans. However, that was before the Supreme Court got us some relief. Also, the mindset of our bureaucrats was to sit on files. We managed to put an end to that.
What is your expectation from Babarpur, your constituency?
We’ve done a lot of development work. Hope the results will be even better than the last time.