“Dilli hui hamari hai, ab Haryana ki baari hai” (Delhi won, now it’s Haryana’s turn) – this is what reads a placard held by a young person wearing the trademark Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) cap and standing amid a crowd at a roadside school in Kundli.
It is 9.30am, Saturday. About 200 AAP supporters are on the school premises, listening to Yogendra Yadav, psephologist and party leader.
After repeating the same line, Yadav said: “When we say this slogan, what do you mean we have to change? We have to bring about a change in the political character. The chief minister’s chair is not important, what is important is to ensure that it remains as holy as Raja Harishchandra’s sinhasan (throne). The one who sits on it talks only truth and does good politics.”
After Delhi, the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP’s focus is now on the Lok Sabha elections. But it shares a special equation with Haryana as the party believes the “people of Haryana, especially volunteers, played an important role in Delhi elections”.
Yadav, in charge of the AAP’s Haryana elections, has declared his party is not just preparing for the Lok Sabha polls, it is looking at early assembly elections in Haryana, which is supposed to have a new government by October.
{{/usCountry}}Yadav, in charge of the AAP’s Haryana elections, has declared his party is not just preparing for the Lok Sabha polls, it is looking at early assembly elections in Haryana, which is supposed to have a new government by October.
{{/usCountry}}Most of his time is spent on touring places in the state.
On Saturday, Yadav addressed roadside meetings in places such as Murthal, Gannuar and Samalkha, talking to a few of them and mostly accepting greetings and flowers. He addressed volunteers’ meetings in Panipat and Karnal.
“Earlier people use to make fun of our caps and not even 10 people spoke to us. Now it is like thousands are chasing us to become AAP members,” said Nitin Monga, an AAP worker.