AAP is a renewed force after Punjab elections: Karnataka convener Prithvi Reddy

With a thumping victory in the recent Punjab elections, the Aam Aadmi Party hopes that their success in Punjab will give a fillip to the party's prospects in Karnataka. With a year to go for Karnataka Assembly polls, AAP's state convener Prithvi Reddy talks to DH's Shruthi HM Sastry on the party's strategy for the state and why he thinks their prospects are better this time. Below are the excerpts from the interview:

Following the Punjab election results, there has been much debate on the Aam Aadmi Party's potential to emerge as an alternative to BJP or Congress. What's your take on it?

We are not looking at emerging as an alternative to either BJP or Congress but we want to offer alternative politics to people of the country. There's a vast difference between the two. This means that elections with no criminal, corrupt and communal people involved. The country needs a different narrative. We want to offer an alternative to the politics and not the parties.

Also read: AAP's Punjab win shows governance gets votes

The BBMP elections are due and Karnataka will also see the Assembly polls in a year. Has the party begun preparation for polls?

We have been preparing for almost two years now for the BBMP polls, although there has been an ordinate delay in the election. Out of the existing 198 wards, we have representatives in 145 wards who have been fighting for civic issues. Since we don’t know how many wards and what the final reservation will be, we have not declared them as candidates.

As for the Assembly polls, our target is to identify 224 candidates across Karnataka in the next three months. We will give them three months to create awareness about AAP’s politics in their potential constituencies. Then we will run a survey to understand people's response to the candidate. Six months before the Assembly elections, we will declare the candidates.

Which are the regions in Karnataka where AAP is hoping to see success?

While our campaign will run across Karnataka, there has been more interest from North Karnataka as the region has been neglected over the decades. Unfortunately development in Karnataka has not reached beyond Bengaluru.

Are there any success strategies from Punjab that you want to replicate in Karnataka?

Our mantra is to bring in good people and understand that there cannot be a blanket manifesto for all regions. For instance, for Bengaluru, we will have 198 manifestos, one for each ward. Civic issues cannot be generalised. One ward might be struggling to get drinking water while another might be facing water logging in the rainy season. For Karnataka too, we will make a region-wise manifesto.

Our basic model is that people’s taxes need to be spent on people and should not go into filling someone else's pocket.

Also read: Dalits: BSP’s loss, gains for BJP, AAP

Of late, the AAP has often been accused of resorting to Soft Hindutva...

We have walked the talk. Take the Mukhya Mantri Tirtha Yatra Yojana for instance. All these days there was a subsidy for Haj. Without cutting this, we have additionally given an ability for Hindus and Christians to visit their holy places. We try to unite people unlike the other two national parties. We want to focus on development and leave the matter of religion and caste as a personal belief. To beat the BJP, we need a different agenda.

Elections have become expensive in the recent years. Do you have enough funds to fight a state-wide election?

We get our funds only from people who believe in the idea of clean politics. This money is very little but what we require is a fraction of what the other parties as we don’t use expensive means for campaigning. Right from the India Against Corruption (IAC) times, Bengaluru has been a huge source of donations for the party. That gives us hope.

The party fared poorly in the 2018 elections. Is there a different strategy this time?

Every election is different. All these days people didn’t consider us as winnable even though they supported our politics. With the Punjab election results, this has changed. We are a renewed force today.

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