‘Changing the CM face won’t hide collective failure’

Interview: Gopal Italia Gujarat President, Aam Aadmi Party

What is your take on change of guard in the state?

According to me, this is due to continuous and collective failure of the BJP government. It’s not that only Vijay Rupani government failed; all the previous governments of the party also failed. BJP ruled only on the basis of communal agenda, hatred and by managing castes. The Congress, being a weak opposition, failed to highlight these failures. AAP is strong and it will bust the BJP. Changing the CM face won’t hide collective failure.

Patidars have been accommodated prominently in the new government. Will it help the BJP win again?

I don’t think so. For a party which has been ruling for 27 years, yet it has to appease a community, don’t you think it indicates complete failure? You claim `sabka saath sabka vikas’, but why do you give prominence to one particular community? It shows their fault lines. Had BJP been successful, they wouldn’t have done it.

Also read: Gujarat: Caste as saviour for BJP?

What alternative AAP has for the voters in Gujarat?

Well, we have the Delhi Model to showcase how the party has transformed the health and education sector. We haven’t done this on the basis of religion, caste, etc. The party has provided basic civic amenities which were lacking like good roads, electricity, water etc. AAP will provide the same to the people of Gujarat who don’t have access to these basic amenities.

Also read: BJP knows people are angry, hence change of CM: Hardik Patel

How is AAP going to compete with the ruling BJP and opposition Congress?

Well, we have several strategies in place already to take on these parties. We launched Jan Samvedna campaign to connect with people who lost their kin to Covid-19. We covered nearly 600 villages and we found how pathetic the situation was. Every family was affected. We have also launched Kisan Samman Adhikar to connect with farmers who are under severe distress due to the farm crisis. We have made more than four lakh members through missed call campaigns and people are joining us in large numbers. The only challenge for us is the BJP’s resources which they spend everywhere to win votes.

However, this won’t work this time now. People are tired of hatred and communal politics. AAP is promising to give a clean government and will work for the interest of common man.

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