CHANDIGARH: With an eye on Punjab Assembly elections due in 2017, the AAP has set a rather ambitious target of enrolling 25 lakh members over the next 15 days.
“The party’s ‘Punjab Jodo’ campaign has been launched under which 25 lakh people will be enrolled in the next 15 days. The party will use social media as it plans to send WhatsApp messages and would reach out to people through text messages, phone calls and about 3,000 party stalls to enrol the new members,” AAP Punjab spokesman said here on Thursday.
He added that the party intends to give a stiff competition to the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal(SAD)-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance, which had been ruling the state since 2007, and the Opposition Congress in the Assembly polls.
Besides, the party will organise rallies across the state from September 2 to September 30 as part of its preparations for the state polls.
The AAP had secured four seats in the Lok Sabha from Punjab in last year’s Parliamentary elections thus opening its account in the Lok Sabha, even as it suffered a rout in the rest of the country. The AAP candidates had won the Sangrur, Patiala, Faridkot and Fatehgarh Sahib Lok Sabha seats, with the party’s garnering 25 per cent of the votes polled.
However, after the general elections there has been mudslinging and infighting among the top brass in the Punjab AAP , including the sitting MPs.
Also, recently, differences within the state unit came out into the open as Fatehgarh Sahib MP Harinder Singh Khalsa did not attend the political conference at Issru (Khanna).
Moreover, Patiala MP Dharamvir Gandhi has raised the banner of revolt against party chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal terming him a dictator.
Meanwhile, AAP leaders, including Bhagwant Mann MP , Gul Panag and Kumar Vishwas are likely to visit the foreign country in order to canvass for NRI votes.