CHANDIGARH: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is sniffing an opportunity to win the Punjab assembly elections slated early next year thanks to the internal conflicts and bickerings within the ruling Congress.
It is likely to enter into a pre-poll alliance with Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt), the party formed by some rebel senior SAD leaders.
It is learnt that a sizeable leadership in the AAP feels that an alliance with Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt) and other likeminded parties is of utmost importance and hence efforts are going on to stitch an alliance before the polls.
Also, AAP leaders are constantly reminding the Punjab voters of the promises which the ruling Congress failed to keep. The leadership is also expecting to see some discontented Congress leaders jump the ship to join its ranks. However, the biggest question before the Delhi’s ruling party is naming a chief ministerial face. Speculation that Sangrur MP Bhagwant Singh would be declared the CM face has almost died down now. But pressure is growing within the party to announce a name.
As the party has not declared a chief ministerial candidate, loyalists of Mann have been putting pressure on the leadership to declare his name. AAP’s national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had, on June 21, announced in Amritsar that party’s Punjab CM face would be from the Sikh community.
Addressing the party’s national executive on Saturday, Kejriwal said he did not wish people to see AAP like the BJP and the Congress and asked party members to give up their aspirations for posts and tickets. Rumour in the AAP circles in Punjab is that Kejriwal’s statement was in context of party members putting pressure to name Mann as the CM face. Party sources said Kejriwal is trying to resolve the issue in a very “tactful” manner and efforts are being made to ensure that Mann remains with the party.
The sources said party leaders had sent feelers to prominent Sikh personalities, inviting them to the party fold, but later the party distanced itself from such feelers. A leader on condition of anonymity said that due to internal strife the party remained in disarray for past four years and now with a few months left for assembly election it couldn’t afford another row.
CM face is a big challenge
Biggest question before the AAP is naming a CM face in Punjab. Speculation that Sangrur MP Bhagwant Singh would be the choice has died down. Sources said as the party has been facing several internal issues in the last four years, it can’t afford another issue just ahead of the election