AAP holds closed-door meet with poll losers

Aam Aadmi Party leaders held a closed-door meeting with its losing candidates at the party office on Hanuman Road on Wednesday

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Head of the party’s campaign group Ashish Talwar called the meeting, a party member said. The meeting tried to build a consensus on the Congress’ offer of support for an AAP-led government in the city, the member said.

“It was a private meeting. We had a discussion with candidates,” Talwar said of the one-hour-long meeting. 

They sat cramped on four small carpets laid out in the veranda, a party member said.

Forty-two members attended the meeting, said Shazia Ilmi who lost by a margin of 326 votes in R K Puram constituency. 

“They are all giving feedback from their constituencies and it is a mixed bag. It is not as easy as it is made out to be,” Ilmi said, adding that it is difficult to reach to a consensus so early. 

The party plans to hold ward-level public meetings in constituencies on Saturday and Sunday. It has already sent emails and SMSes to voters to seek their opinion. Half a million responses came on Wednesday, a party member said.

“We are going to the people. Let them decide. We want people to be decision-makers,” Ilmi said. “We have a situation and we are honest about it.”

‘No scientific method’

Talwar said the party is not following any scientific method to gauge public opinion but a “holistic” one. “Responses are coming from SMSes and the website, but correct responses will come only when we start the jan sabhas (public meeting),” he said.

“We are not relying on nothing more or less. We have to complete the process and get everybody’s opinion.”

The winning candidates had a meeting on Tuesday with party leader Arvind Kejriwal before he addressed the media about the party’s plan to seek a public opinion.