AAP to strengthen Gujarat unit before 2017 Assembly polls

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today said it has decided to strengthen its Gujarat unit ahead of the 2017 State Assembly polls.
As a part of the exercise, AAP national leaders, including Sanjay Singh, Ashotosh and Delhi MLA Gulab Singh, today held a meeting with party workers here to chalk out a road-map on party's future plans in Gujarat.
Sanjay Singh told reporters that Congress was not a "natural alternative" to BJP in the recently concluded civic body polls and that voters chose the key opposition at the Centre out of compulsion.
"Voters chose Congress out of compulsion as they did not had any other alternative in the elections. Otherwise, Congress was not their natural choice. That is why, AAP wants to give voters a better alternative ahead of state Assembly polls in 2017," Singh said.

Making an impressive comeback in the state, Congress in the recently held local body polls, won 124 taluka panchayat seats out of total 230, while the BJP had to settle with just 60. Forty-six taluka bodies had hung verdict.
Similarly, Congress captured 21 out of total 31 district panchayats, while BJP won just six.

Singh termed this poll results as a "warning sign" for BJP and shared details about AAP's future plans.
"Our aim is to provide a better political alternative to not just Congress, but also to BJP ahead of the Assembly polls. We are now focusing on building our booth-level organisation in the state," he said.

"Though our state-unit was dormant till now, we have
now taken up the task to appoint various office bearers here. We are also working at building ground level presence. Our aim is to appoint 10 youths per booth across the state" Ashutosh said.
Currently, no leader is holding the post of party state chief, which Ashutosh said, it does not believe in projecting only one person as leader.
"The leader for Gujarat will eventually emerge from cadres. We don't believe in politics based on only 'one face'. We have finalised a list of in-charge for 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Thus, a strong leadership will emerge in the near future, just wait and watch," the AAP spokesperson said.

Beside strengthening booth-level outfits, AAP will engage in state-wide agitation against the present BJP-led government, Delhi MLA and Gujarat AAP unit in-charge, Gulab Singh, said.
"We are working at two different levels. Apart from strengthening organisation, AAP workers will also engage in agitations against BJP government, which has failed on all the fronts. We are planning to take out 50 rallies across the state within next six months," Singh said.
According to Kanu Kalsariya, former BJP MLA who joined AAP last year, people from both urban and rural areas are agitated against BJP for not fulfilling their promises.
"In villages, farmers are forced to commit suicide as they are not given proper Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their agricultural produces. In urban areas, people are suffering from rampant corruption and price rise of essential commodities," he alleged.