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Surjit Singh Thakur becomes president of AAP’s Himachal unit
Nirmal Sharma will head the women wing, Anup Patial youth wing, and Durgesh Kartial will head the OBC wing of the AAP
Months after strings of defection forced it to dissolve its unit in Himachal Pradesh, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is striving hard to make inroads into the bipolar political arena of poll-bound Himachal Pradesh, picked up Surjit Singh Thakur to lead the party in the state. Surjit hails from Pacchad assembly segment, the home turf of BJP state chief Suresh Kashyap.
Nirmal Sharma will head the women wing, Anup Patial youth wing, and Durgesh Kartial will head the OBC wing of the AAP.
AAP leader and Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia announced the new team in Shimla along with its Rajya Sabha member from Punjab Sandeep Pathak. “The party ran an outreach programme in all villages across the state. Our workers visited 3,615 gram panchayats in Himachal and made the people aware of AAP’s policy and programmes. The AAP has reached every nook and corner of the state,” Sisodia said while addressing the media.
“People of the state want a change, but they do not favour the Congress. They now see a ray of hope in the AAP. People of Himachal are aware of the working and functioning of AAP’s government in Delhi,” he added.
“The new team in the state will work on the Arvind Kejriwal’s model of development and change the scape of Himachal,” Sisodia said.
Surjit Singh Thakur, a postgraduate in hotel management and social sciences, has for long been associated with AAP movement. “The country wants to become the world leader. It can do it, but first we need to take care of health and education of the common man. Both the Congress and the BJP had been unable to do so,” Surjit said.
Rajya Sabha member and co-incharge of party affairs in Himachal Sandeep Pathak apprised the mediamen of the party’s programmes in Himachal.
The AAP had suffered a jolt in April when its state president Anup Kesari, general secretary (organisation) Satish Thakur and Una district chief Iqbal Singh had joined the BJP. It had come at the time when the AAP announced to contest elections on all 68 seats in HP.
The AAP had dissolved its entire state unit after that. The party’s new team comprises seven state vice-presidents, two state secretaries, six joint secretaries, seven Lok Sabha incharges, two Lok Sabha secretaries, 12 district incharges, three deputy district incharges, 12 district secretaries, as many district treasures, 11 district social media incharges, and five district office incharges.
