RAEBARELI: Staying true to his party's name, Aam Aadmi Party candidate Gaurav Singh's election campaign in the high-profile Raebareli assembly constituency of Uttar Pradesh is sans the usual display of extravagance and clout.
Singh hails from a middle-class family with no political lineage and has found support among friends -- all locals from various walks of life -- who are chipping in by lending him car, providing fuel and meals or by any other means to help him reach out to voters.
The 33-year-old, who is debuting with the AAP from the Raebareli Sadar seat, is pitted against the sitting BJP MLA Aditi Singh, Samajwadi Party's R P Yadav, Congress' Manish Chauhan, among others.
The major parties have strong cadre support and resources at hand something visible during their exuberant poll campaigns that have scores of people in multiple cars and SUVs running the show for candidates.
Unlike them, Singh and his small entourage of usually less than 10 people go around the neighbourhood markets and visit villages, making pit stops at every point where they hope to find voters and discuss their issues related to governance.
"We have got only two cars. One of them is of a friend who is managing the fuel on his own. One of the friends has taken it upon himself to manage meals for us during the campaigns, while another has helped with some banners and flags," Singh told PTI.
In his election affidavit, Singh, who runs a small school on the city outskirts, has declared total assets around Rs 20 lakh and liabilities worth Rs 8 lakh.
On what led to the decision to join active politics, he said the suffering of people and the business community during the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns made him realise that the voice of a common man is not heard in the system.
"One needs a position in the system to raise the voice of the common man," Singh said, listing out civic issues like traffic congestion, lack of parking space, drinking water, education facilities and sanitation that are awaiting redressal in this "VIP constituency" for several years.
He felt the MLAs of Raebareli have so far been unable to adequately put forth the issues of the constituency in the UP Assembly and hopes to deliver if elected.
On his chances of winning the election as a candidate of AAP, which is fighting its first assembly poll in the most populous state, Singh said the politics in Uttar Pradesh has so far remained centred around caste equations.
"If some people think the fight in Raebareli is between the BJP and the SP, or the BJP and the Congress or the Congress and the SP with Aam Aadmi Party not even in the fight, I want to remind everyone that some people had the same thoughts seven years ago during Delhi elections when AAP contested its maiden polls," Singh said.
He said the AAP won the Delhi election with a huge mandate in 2013 and people thought it was a fluke, adding some months later, the assembly elections were held once again in 2014 but AAP won the polls with a bigger margin.
"So those in power tend to consider others as non-serious candidates but that is not the case. Now it is for the voters to decide if they want to focus only on those with political lineage or consider someone who hopes to represent them," he said.
Singh said he was hopeful that people will vote for 'broom', AAP's election symbol, this time.
With curtailed resources and the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the poll campaigns, the AAP candidate depended more on door-to-door campaigns while also taking to social media for public reach out.
"Singh has launched 'Gaurav ki Guarantee', a constituency-specific manifesto for people of Raebareli," Raghav Dubey, who is heading the poll campaign for Singh, told PTI.
"The manifesto puts forth the AAP's vision for developing Raebareli and helping people. For example, AAP has proposed a call centre and mobile app where residents can call and share their grievances with the MLA. The problems will be followed up in a time-bound manner," Dubey said.
Similarly, the party has charted out problems affecting ordinary residents, market associations and traders, industrial sector, school children, commuters, etc and offers a solution to their woes with accountability from the MLA, he added.
Raebareli Sadar seat goes to polls on February 23 in the fourth phase of assembly elections, whose result will be declared on March 10.