1,900 Lambi families in party fold: AAP

Sukhbir reaches Badal village

• As soon as the AAP’s Parivar Jodo campaign for the day concluded, SAD chief-cum-Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal arrived at his Badal village residence in the evening. He reportedly gathered reports from the SAD leaders of the area about the activity of AAP volunteers.

AAP volunteers during the Parivar Jodo campaign at Badal village in Lambi (Muktsar) on Sunday. A Tribune photograph

Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Muktsar, March 13

Declaring that victory from Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s home turf Lambi is on the top of their agenda, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leadership today sent 72 teams of its nearly 1,000 volunteers to similar number of villages in this VVIP constituency and claimed to have brought nearly 1,900 families into the party fold under the Parivar Jodo campaign.

The AAP had launched the Parivar Jodo campaign in this constituency on February 9. So far, nearly 23,000 families have joined AAP in the Lambi Assembly segment alone, claimed Neel Garg, AAP’s zonal media in charge, who is actively campaigning in this area.

The AAP leadership has further claimed that at least 150 families from the ruling Badal family’s native village – Badal – have come into the AAP fold.

Meanwhile, some villagers sitting near the CM’s residence, on being asked about the response to the AAP’s campaign, said they only saw AAP volunteers roaming in their vehicles, but nobody approached them.

A resident of Badal village, having his residence opposite the CM’s residence, said, “Some people may have made their minds to vote for AAP in Badal village, but nobody will paste stickers or posters of AAP at their residence here.”

The AAP leaders said each team of nearly 20 volunteers, which included some locals, covered one village from about 9 am to 4 pm today.

Gurlabh Singh Mahal, AAP’s legal cell in charge of the Bathinda parliamentary constituency, said, “Nearly 100 advocates accompanied the teams, which campaigned in Lambi today. We were afraid that policemen or SAD leaders may confront us. A large number of policemen were deployed in the area today.” Mahal claimed that in Kolianwali, the village of SAD district president Dyal Singh Kolianwali, nearly 200 families joined the AAP.

Under this campaign, the AAP volunteers explained the achievements of the AAP government in Delhi, their plans for Punjab and how the SAD and Congress “looted” the public exchequer. Some AAP volunteers said today’s exercise was just to give a message to the Chief Minister.

“If AAP is able to take nearly 8,000 people into the party fold in just one day and that too from Badal’s Lambi segment, where people are afraid of the state rulers and their henchmen, the scenario in other parts of the state can be well gauged from this response,” said AAP volunteers. On the authenticity of the figures of those joined AAP, they said the contact number of those agreed to vote for AAP was noted down and there was no manipulation of figures.

“A large number of people told us that they are fed up from the cluster in charges of the SAD, thus they are joining the AAP. Some people even complained to us about the corrupt practices adopted by the ruling party leaders in the area. We have assured all of them to redress their grievances once the AAP comes to power in the state,” said AAP volunteers.

Courtesy: The Tribune