AAP to go local, plans dist-wise farmers' manifesto in Karnataka

An optimistic Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has decided to bring out a manifesto exclusively for farmers in Karnataka, a state where the Arvind Kejriwal-led unit wants to shed its ‘urban’ image.

“We will be the only party that will have a farmers’ manifesto,” AAP Karnataka convenor Prithvi Reddy told DH. “We will have a region-wise, district-wise manifesto. You can’t have a farmers’ manifesto that would talk only about sugarcane,” he said.

After its rise in Delhi a decade ago, the party had set its sight on Karnataka, especially Bengaluru where it found support in the city’s I-T population. While elections to the BBMP would have been AAP’s launchpad, it will now have to fight the big Assembly polls. BBMP elections, which were due two years ago, are uncertain for the time being. “Evidence so far suggests that AAP’s impact will be limited to urban areas. That’s not enough,” London-based Karnataka politics expert James Manor said at a webinar earlier this week. “Karnataka elections are won and lost in rural constituencies. If AAP fails to penetrate into those constituencies, then it’ll struggle to perform well,” he said.

Reddy does not agree with that notion. “These past six months, we’ve silently been doing Gram Sampark Abhiyan. We have 5,000-10,000 booth volunteers across 182 constituencies. We create visibility, supporters make calls and we get in touch with them,” he explained, adding that AAP’s Karnataka campaign would start in January.

“The response we get in rural areas is far superior than in urban areas. That’s because people in rural areas need a government. In urban pockets, honestly, we’ve learnt to survive without real governance,” Reddy said. AAP will get “maximum support” from north Karnataka in terms of votes, he insisted.

The Congress is said to be wary of AAP eating into its vote share. “Of course, we will cut Congress’ votes. We will also cut votes of BJP and JD(S),” Reddy said. “All three parties aren’t asking for votes based on assurances or their delivery. We’ll promise schools, hospitals, electricity, water...our opponents are corruption and maladministration,” he said.

AAP will be the third national party to enter the poll fray in Karnataka alongside BJP and Congress. “We met two conditions to become a national party: we’re a state recognised party in four states - Delhi, Punjab, Gujarat and Goa - with a 6% vote share. And, we have a minimum of two seats,” Reddy said.