With Mega Rally and Trending #, Arvind Kejriwal Launches Punjab Campaign Today
The hashtag #HopeofPunjabKejriwal was top Twitter trend on Thursday morning, with hours to go for three mega political rallies at the Maghi Mela, a religious fair in Muktsar, Punjab, where a build-up has begun for next year’s election.
Arvind Kejriwal has declared that Punjab is his Aam Aadmi Party’s next stop after the conquest of Delhi last year, shaking up the traditional political dynamics in Punjab, which has seen the Congress and the Akali Dal, along with partner BJP, in a straight contest for years.
The AAP has said it will launch its campaign for Punjab from Muktsar today. While the Delhi chief minister, billed as the star attraction at the mela, will front the Aam Aadmi Party rally, Congress chief in Punjab Amrinder Singh will address one too as will Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son and deputy Sukhbir Badal of the Akali Dal.
All political leaders will be in Muktsar around noon to address the meetings, which are planned as big shows of strength. The fair draws thousands of sikh devotees and political workers from neighbouring districts to Muktsar.
The Congress recently effected a change of guard in the state, bringing in former chief minister Amrinder Singh as party chief to galavanise the state unit into a winning team in time for the elections. The Congress has been out of power for nine years, with the Akali Dal-BJP combine making history in 2012 by winning a second straight term. Punjab had, before that, always voted alternately before that.
All four seats that Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP had won in its debut national election in 2014 were from Punjab and the party fancies its chances in the state especially after it spectacular performance in the Delhi assembly elections last year, when it swept 67 of the capital’s 70 seats.
To fund its Maghi Mela rally, the AAP organised a fund-raising dinner on Tuesday in neighbouring Bathinda at a four-star hotel at Rs. 5,000 per person. Mr Kejriwal didn’t attend, but the party managed more than 100 people to pay and dine with singer-turned-Sangrur lawmaker Bhagwant Mann and party in-charge for Punjab affairs Sanjay Singh.
