AAP designates Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak as gen secy (org)

Pathak, a former associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, has been credited with having an important role in AAP winning the assembly elections in Punjab held in March, and was later sent to the Rajya Sabha from that state.

Days after becoming eligible for the status of national party, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday appointed its Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak as its national general secretary (organisation) -- a new role in the AAP, which confers on him the responsibility of building the party’s organisational base across the country, especially in states going to polls before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak. (File)

Congratulating Pathak, AAP national convenor and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, “I congratulate Dr Sandeep Pathak and wish him good luck for his new responsibility. We have to build AAP sangthan (organisation) in every nook and corner of the country.”

The AAP has also appointed Pathak as its permanent invitee to the political affairs committee (PAC) -- highest decision making body of the party.

“Aam Aadmi Party has now become a national party and our responsibility now is to spread the message of Arvind Kejriwal and his type of positive politics to every mohalla, village and household in the country… When you have a leader of the stature of Arvind Kejriwal and when your ideology is politics of honesty, then the strategy becomes simple and foolproof,” Pathak said in a statement issued by AAP.

“My target now is to further expand this politics of AAP to every village and every household of the country. We want to reach that one last man or woman in the rural areas of the country. We do not worry much about the election results and leave that to the people of the state to choose,” he said.

Pathak, a former associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, has been credited with having an important role in AAP winning the assembly elections in Punjab held in March, and was later sent to the Rajya Sabha from that state. He was also named the election in-charge for the recent polls in Gujarat, a state in which the AAP won only five out of 182, but garnered 13% of the vote share.

The AAP is set to become India’s ninth national party after being recognised in four states -- Delhi and Punjab, where it is in power, and Goa and Gujarat by virtue of winning over 6% of the vote share and more than two assembly seats.