After Delhi, Aam Aadmi Party is eyeing its electoral chances across India. In Punjab, even as the party’s infrastructural set up seems fairly weak, there’s a buzz in the air, and questions abound.
Will Manpreet Badal’s PPP merge with AAP? Will AAP prefer to remain without a recognisable face, hoping that Arvind Kejriwal on a poster, & the Broom symbol will have enough traction?
What about the tired Left in Punjab? Is there space enough for a Third Force in Punjab where two sides are firmly entrenched?
Where are the feeding movements in Punjab, the kind that lent life energy to the movement in Delhi? The jal-jungle-zameen struggles, the farmers’, the women’s, the dalits’, the civil rights’ agitations laid a strong foundation, and it was this that AAP lent a politics to.
In this KHABARSAAR episode, Rajiv Godara of AAP and journalist-activist Hamir Singh dispute the anchor’s contention about such movements being either absent or visible only to the one adamant on keenly looking for these. Representing the Congress in the debate is Sukhpal Singh Khaira, who seems to be in a moral dilemma, defending his party, and welcoming Kejriwal, the latest box office hero of Indian politics, and even of electoral hustings.