AAP’s formula for four States: stronger organisation, WhatsApp groups till booth level

The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) organisational work in election-bound States is being “carefully monitored” by the central leadership this time.

After failing to win even a single seat in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka in 2018, the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) organisational work in these election-bound States is being “carefully monitored” by the central leadership this time. Delhi MLAs have been appointed as election in-charges in all four States to achieve the dream of growing beyond Delhi, Punjab, and Gujarat. Multiple party leaders said the focus is on building an organisational structure and reach till the booth level.

This is being executed through extensive membership drives and creating WhatsApp groups of citizens at every polling booth. “We send daily messages in these WhatsApp groups; they are a 70:30 mix of the work done by the party in Delhi, Punjab and the failures of the party in power in these States,” a party source said, adding that the plan is to have such WhatsApp groups at every polling booth by the end of May.

Riding on the faces of its two Chief Ministers – Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann – AAP will repeat its promises made in Punjab such as ₹1,000 per month for women above 18 years of age and also its time-tested promise of free electricity and water being implemented in Delhi in all these four States, said party sources.

After retaining Delhi and sweeping to power in Punjab, AAP picked up five seats in Gujarat and two seats in Goa. The lesson going ahead is to build a robust organisational structure. “No party can come to power in one wave and has to focus on building the organisation bit by bit,” a senior party leader said.

Karnataka is to go to polls in May and the other three States later this year. While AAP has announced that it will contest all seats in Karnataka, party insiders said the plan is to concentrate its efforts on selected seats. The party is more hopeful in the other three States, an AAP source said.

The party skipped Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland earlier this year and intends to do the same in Mizoram; it is also likely to skip Telangana due to an understanding with K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi, said the source.

Terming the failure in 2018 as the “past”, AAP Rajasthan in-charge Vinay Mishra said the party has learnt from its failures and has already announced its organisational set-up till district level. “We will announce village-level organisation in the next 20 days,” he told  The Hindu.