AAP eyes LS seats in tribal Chhattisgarh

Raipur, December 24

Effervescing with confidence after tasting success in its maiden assembly elections in Delhi, the one-year-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is on expansion spree as it has started searching favorable ground for establishing its units in other states with clear intention to send host of apolitical people in parliament by fielding them in upcoming general elections. In this context, AAP members recently toured Maoist-hit hypersensitive areas of Bastar and Kanker Lok Sabha constituencies in Chhattisgarh to get acquainted with political conditions.

According to information, a two-member AAP team comprising the party’s national executive member Dr Devendra Sharma and his colleague travelled Kanker, Jagdalpur, Bijapur, Dantewada and Konta onDecember 20. The party had kept itinerary of these members secret due to their movement in naxal-infested regions. Except some supporters, nobody in AAP’s State unit was aware of this visit.

During their tour, the two members not only collected information about geographical and social conditions, but also tried to learn how deep the roots of BJP, Congress and Communist Party of India (CPI) are in those regions.

Besides, they fetched data about tribal population, their financial condition, job prospects for locals under government schemes, migration status and influence of Maoists on villagers.

Further, they talked to local activists and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to know about the status of human rights and aftereffects of Salva Judum – the movement which was initiated by State government a couple of years back to train local youth to counter naxals, but was stopped after Supreme Court invalidated it.

Though the two members did not disclose the reason of their Chhatisgarh visit, they hinted that AAP was planning to contest Lok Sabha polls in some seats of the State.

In recent polls, Congress captured five out of eight assembly seats under Bastar LS constituency and received 10,000 more votes than BJP. Similarly, in Kanker parliamentary constituency, Congress grabbed six out of eight seats and got 85,000 more votes than BJP.

Apparently, the swing was in favour of Congress in tribal Chhattisgarh, though BJP managed to come to power again by winning more seats in other parts of the State. However, with just three months remaining for general elections and considering low literacy rate and no awareness in tribal areas, it would really be a tough task for AAP to pose serious challenge to BJP and Congress unless it succeeds in making people believe that the issues it raised would be dealt effectively if given mandate.