Still basking in the overwhelming victory of their party in the Punjab Assembly elections, supporters of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Canada want to serve as a bridge to their home state.
Following the party securing a majority on March 10, prominent AAP backers have sent feelers from Canadian politicians who want to reach out to the new government of chief minister-elect Bhagwant Mann.
As 37-year-old volunteer Sudeep Singla, who is originally from Hoshiarpur, said, “Several Canadian officials have contacted us. These include MPs at the national level, those from the province (of Ontario) including a minister and even from the municipalities. They all want to have forge ties with the AAP government.”
Singla, a management consultant, is hopeful of travelling to India this spring and enabling these contacts and taking these conversations forward so they can be beneficial not just to Punjab but to India. “We also want to highlight issues of NRIs to him (Mann),” he said.
Supporters are yet to recover from the thrill of the results of March 10, even though that meant they stayed up till 3am Canada time to watch the counting. Among the major events held by them was in the Greater Toronto Area town of Brampton, as a banquet hall hosted nearly 250 of the faithful.
{{/usCountry}}Supporters are yet to recover from the thrill of the results of March 10, even though that meant they stayed up till 3am Canada time to watch the counting. Among the major events held by them was in the Greater Toronto Area town of Brampton, as a banquet hall hosted nearly 250 of the faithful.
{{/usCountry}}More celebrations may be in the works leading up to swearing-in of the AAP government and among those being considered are a car rally or even a religious ceremony at a gurdwara.
The emotions this year are in contrast to those five years earlier when AAP was considered a frontrunner for much of the campaign but was handily bested by the Congress led by Captain Amarinder Singh. “I can’t express the feelings this time. This is so awesome,” Singla said.
While enthusiasm was high for the elections this time, there wasn’t as much activity due to the constraints imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, including preventing supporters from travelling to Punjab for electioneering as they did in 2017. Despite that, the celebrations of the outcome may still persist for a while.