Kejri asks urban villagers to help AAP win this time

R'than ignore Pong Dam inhabitants, says Virbhadra

The Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday launched its gramin morcha to woo voters in over 200 rural pockets in Delhi.

The launch was part of the ongoing drive to set up frontal organisations to expand the party base among different sections of society.

“Last time when I was campaigning for the Delhi elections, I spent 70 per cent of my time in villages. People gave us love. But they didn’t give us votes,” party chief Arvind Kejriwal said.

The party, as per its own assessment, didn’t win a single seat in predominantly rural constituencies of the city, despite managing an impressive tally of 28 seats in the 70-member House.

Party leader Naveen Jaihind, who is leading the party’s campaign in rural areas of Delhi, said they are eying two-third of the 22-25 Assembly seats, located in urban village areas.

Accusing the BJP of using villages to mint votes, Kejriwal said, if re-elected, the AAP will remove bottlenecks to ensure adequate compensation for farmers whose lands are acquired for development projects by the government and private companies.

The party has also promised to remove all sections from the Delhi Land Reforms Act, which provide for “punishment to farmers”, stressing that penal provisions to deal with farmers is a “retrograde step”.

In his address to a gathering of village elders and AAP workers, the former chief minister said his party, once elected, will ensure better transport connectivity on rural outskirts by extension of the Metro network and introduction of more buses.

The AAP also announced a team of 20 office bearers to drive their message home.