Bangalore: Kundan Singh, founder member of Aam Aadmi Party and coordinator of an awareness rally in the city on Sunday, spoke to Deccan Chronicle at length on the plans of the party in the Karnataka after its stupendous success in Delhi.
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How was the response to the bike rally on Sunday?
We had sent out messages to all our members and volunteers through mail, Facebook and Twitter. We expected around 200 bikes, but we were surprised to see around 250 two-wheelers and 50 cars at the Freedom Park, the starting point. Around 600 people took part in the rally and many of them joined on the way as we went to different parts of the city. We had distributed data entry forms to all pillion riders, who collected basic information from the people who joined us on the way. We collected information from 2,000 people.
Is AAP’s strategy different in Bangalore, as compared to Delhi, to get the support of the people?
Most of the people in Bangalore are tech-savvy and connected online, and it is a big advantage. We have working committees in all the 28 assembly constituencies of the city. They have groups of aam aadmis who have taken the responsibility of leading the political revolution.
How is AAP planning to attract supporters?
We have started our membership drives in crowded areas, like malls, Metro stations and public places. Since all of us are working professionals, we make sure that we spend at least two to three hours every day for the party. To make people aware of the struggle against corruption, our volunteers have started performing street plays. As we have learned from Delhi elections, door-to-door campaign is the best way to connect with people and we have started it in all assemblies constituencies of the city, which traditional political parties do only 15 days before the elections.
How many new party members have joined in the city after the Delhi phenomenon?
We are conducting registrations in three ways: Our members go on drives to register people from public places using a Rs 10 membership form, we have offices in seven assemblies to register new people and registration through our website www.aapkarnataka.org. Since the Delhi elections, a large number of people are registering on our national website. As Karnataka was only the second state to have the highest number of donors, we believe that we have a large number of supporters here. The existing volunteer base of 12,000 has swelled to 20,000 plus after the Delhi results.
What are party's short-term and long-term goals in Bangalore?
We are not focused only on the 2014 elections. We have not yet decided on how many seats we could contest from in Karnataka, but we will go for maximum number of seats. We believe in the concept of Swaraj and we will form our manifesto based on the needs of the people when we go for door-to-door campaigning.
In Delhi, we had 70 manifestos for all 70 assembly constituencies and they were decided by the people from respective localities. In Bangalore, we have different segments of people, so we are working on categorising their problems and will finalise the manifestos later. We are trying to know what the people want and how we can work for it together.
How many techies have enrolled themselves into the party?
We have separate Facebook pages for different assembly constituencies. We have a separate Google group in each assembly constituency to communicate with each other on local events. We have named our BTM assembly Facebook page as Namma BTM, AAP Ka BTM. We have a separate Whatsapp group for each assembly constituency. We have a common Facebook page for the entire city, which is AAP Bangalore, and for the state, AAP Karnataka. We have Facebook pages for other districts too.
Is AAP targeting Bangalore after Delhi?
Besides a large number of people donating for AAP, a big group of volunteers from the state went to Delhi for campaigning. Data entry work, responding to mails and queries, web moderation, email moderation as well as offline support like writing post cards to Delhiites and calling campaign for Delhiites happened from Bangalore.
As Bangaloreans have already participated and supported AAP in Delhi elections, we hope that we will make this political revolution a huge success in the city.
How is the coordination happening betwÂeen Delhi and Bangalore?
Party national executive members, like Prashanth Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, recently visited Bangalore after the Delhi elections to ensure that whatever happened in Delhi should repeat in Bangalore.
Next: New age parties turn city political
New age parties turn city political
The upcoming elections are likely to change the perception about Bangalore, considered politically cold and indifferent. Parliamentary elections are due in less than five months and the city is buzzing with political activity. Or at least, everything that is happening around seems to have a political colour to it.
This is not to judge the genuineness of their causes and efforts, nor that Bangalore does not need people coming out to make the city more politically aware, but the city is stirring with high-voltage politics like never before. The rise of many new, alternative political parties has made the run-up to the general elections more colourful than ever.
Members and supporters of the Loksatta Party concluded on Monday a three-day hunger strike against the KPSC scam. They are demanding action by the government on the scam.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday organised a bike and car rally to create awareness about clean politics.
The rally that passed through major parts of the city aimed to highlight issues of misuse of public money with the proposed South America tour of Karnataka MLAs, emphasis on clean and honest politics propagated by the Aam Aadmi Party in the backdrop of the proposed re-induction of former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa into the BJP and issues related to women's safety.
The newbie Nav Bharat Democratic Party is not far behind either. The party on Monday held a protest in front of Vidhana Soudha against MLAs’ foreign tour on tax payers' money.
A delegation from Nav Bharat, led by its president R.K. Misra, met Governor H.R. Bhardwaj to demand a ban on Legislators’ "Study Tours" to exotic destinations. Mr Misra said, “Our politicians should read the writing on the wall and take lessons from the recent Delhi elections.”
