AAP invokes CM’s clean image to win voters’ hearts

NEW DELHI: Desperate to keep its hold on the national capital and seek votes in the name of its redoubtable poster boy Arvind Kejriwal, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has decided to invoke his image as a ‘Common Man CM’ in the run-up to the 2020 Assembly polls.

Launching the ‘I Love Kejriwal’ campaign and the ‘Jan Samwad Yatra’ on Tuesday, two targeted outreach campaigns to curry favour with voters, the AAP’s in-charge of Delhi affairs Gopal Rai said the party would bank on the CM’s image as a corruption crusader to turn the tide of public sentiment back in its favour.

He said AAP workers would fan out across the city and remind voters of Kejriwal’s reputation as an ‘Outsider’, who scripted a glory run to the hustings with his call for clean politics and governance. He said the ‘yatra’ would focus on rallying the voting public around the party and its leader in the run-up to the polls.

Separate teams have been put together to hard-sell the CM’s image as a corruption-fighting, educated and nationalist chief minister, who changed the lives of Delhiites. The ‘yatra’ would focus on raising general awareness on the government’s recent moves to waive pending water bills and make 200 units of electricity free of charge, as well as reforms in the key sectors of health and education.

The voters would also be reminded of the CM’s 15-day hunger strike at Ramlila Maidan, along with graft crusader Anna Hazare, which catapulted him into national consciousness and led to the birth of AAP.

“The ‘I Love Kejriwal’ campaign would involve people who want Arvind Kejriwal to be voted back as chief minister. After the Jam Samwad Yatra, we’d out hand out pamphlets detailing the work done by our government and why Kejriwal should return as the CM,” Rai said.“We’ll appoint booth-level in-charges in every constituency for taking the campaign to the last lane of Delhi,” Rai said.