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aap
membership The Delhi Assembly poll results have triggered a crisis for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), albeit a happy one. It has the unique situation of people wanting to be members looking for the party, which has very few official representatives even in North India and the metros, its prime vote pools. Overnight, there is a rush to ramp up the party infrastructure.
Sarbjit Dhaliwal The party’s profile, like in other parts of the country, changed drastically in the state after the results of the New Delhi Assembly elections. Whereas its offices at the district headquarters used to receive only 30-40 phone calls every day, the number of calls has shot up to 300 per day. The party’s state office gets about 2,000 phone calls daily. The query: how to become a member of the party. The party reaches about 65,000 people every day through the social media in Punjab. “There are 34 lakh persons, mostly youngsters, on Facebook in the state and about four lakh Twitter users. We have been extensively using the social media to reach out to them,” says Himanshu, who belongs to Jalandhar and is a member of the national IT and social media team of AAP. Without even a symbolic organisational structure or infrastructure, the party is enrolling an average of about 4,000 to 5,000 members daily in Punjab. The enrolment went up by six times immediately after the declaration of the New Delhi results. The party is getting a good response in central Punjab and its membership has reached 1.35 lakh. “It is a rough estimate. The number is about 18,000 in Jalandhar, 15,000 in Amritsar, 17,000 in Patiala, 20,000 in Ludhiana, 30,000 in Sangrur, 7,000 in Nawanshar, 4,000 in Moga, 8,000 in Ropar and 5,000 in Ferozepur,” he says. Some people are going in for direct enrolment and not feeding the figure to the AAP headquarters in New Delhi or Punjab. “The figure may be much more. The party is trying to open its offices in all districts. We are yet to fan out to all corners of the state,” says Himanshu.
Getting there
CHANDIGARH The party was literally non-existent in the UT before the outcome of the Delhi elections. But now the membership drive has caught the fancy of the common people as over 15,000 members have enrolled themselves through different mediums — SMS, online registration and door-to-door enrolment. So far, around 200 persons have already sent their nominations for ticket from the Chandigarh parliamentary seat.
The enrolment process got a boost when AAP leader Yogendra Yadav visited the city on January 12 to address a gathering of city residents. The party has just a five-member team and does not have any organisational setup in the city. Volunteers are devoting time out of their professional lives to carry out the door-to-door campaign. Enrolment camps are being held in different sectors on a day-to-day basis. People with star value who have joined the party are Nirmal Milka Singh, wife of Olympian Milkha Singh, and Savita Bhatti, wife of the late comedian Jaspal Bhatti. At the same time, signs of dissidence have emerged among AAP members.
Getting there
HARYANA After the December 8 election results that saw the fortunes of AAP change in the national Capital, adjoining Haryana suddenly came on the party’s political radar. Soon after the result, AAP set up units in 18 out of the 21 districts in the state almost simultaneously. But looking at the number of enquiries and willingness of the people to join, the numbers swelled overnight and in less than a month, every district of the state has a party office in most prominent towns. Naveen Jaihind, a national executive member of the party who hails from Rohtak district, says when the Delhi results were declared, each district had between 1,000 and 2,000 active members. The party fixed a target of 11 lakh by January 26, 2014, for Haryana. In the first week of the drive itself, the party has met half the figure. Another national executive member, Yogender Yadav belongs to Rewari in Haryana. The party has announced Haryana as its next target for contesting elections. It has adopted a multipronged approach for the recruitment drive using online filling of forms, issuing slips in the names of people wishing to become members, through phone. The party has also given out numbers new numbers, where an SMS can be sent with the name, STD code and name of the Assembly segment to enrol as a member. AAP has been very popular with bureaucrats who have made a beeline for the party. Those who have joined the party include AS Bhatotia, former DGP; VN Rai, former Director of Police Training Academy, Hyderabad; former IPS officer Ranbir Sharma, retired IAS officer HS Rana and former Chairman of the Haryana Public Service Commission, DR Chaudhry. Party sources say some top politicians are also expected to join AAP soon. Getting there
Bengaluru Nanoo kooda janasamanya” is the Kannada translation of “Mein bhi aam aadmi” — the name that has been given to the nationwide membership enrolment drive launched by AAP. “We are getting a huge response in Karnataka,” claims Siddharth Sharma, AAP coordinator and founder member of the party’s Karnataka unit. The state is expected to contribute five lakh members, of the one crore target set by AAP for the entire country. It looks like we are going to exceed the target, he says. At the same time, he says it is not possible to give any figure with regard to the enrolment as it is still under way. “Members are being enrolled through various means — centralised missed call system, text messages, our website and physical enrolment by volunteers. The drive is a success in Karnataka but we cannot give a figure before the process is over,” he says. AAP has units in all districts of the state. One of the recent star entrants to the party is former Infosys top executive V Balakrishnan. Though one gets the strong impression that the AAP following in Karnataka is primarily confined to Bangalore, Sharma claims the party has members even in remote areas. Getting there
New
Delhi The journey to Parliament is not going to be an easy ride for the fledgling Aam Aadmi Party, given the inadequate manpower at its command, even as its popularity and support base have soared high post the Delhi win. Born of far-reaching voluntary activism, the party’s strength has always been its enthusiastic brigade of volunteers who manned the party’s campaign, leading to an impressive show in the national Capital and are now poised to steer the party’s national ambitions. Banking on goodwill, AAP has set an ambitious target of enrolling one crore people by January 26. Every day, thousands of people are registering themselves with AAP, with many among them considering it as a shortcut to politics. Realising the challenge it is faced with ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the ‘inexperienced’ party is inducting new members on a war-footing under its fortnight membership drive — Main Hun Aam Aadmi — which commenced on January 10. It is also roping in well-known public figures and intellectuals to further its political cause. Mindful of the fact that its performance in Delhi is being constantly assessed the party is putting its full might in displaying governance skills. This has propelled the party’s growth momentum. In the first eight days, over 20 lakh enrolled themselves through SMS, online and the unique missed-call system. The target looks unachievable even as the party hopes to cover the margin through its door-to-door visits. “After the success in Delhi, people across the country want to be a part of the change. We were finding it difficult to tap them and so we launched the Main Hun Aam Aadmi campaign. We would also get to know where our party stands,” says Gopal Rai, the overall in charge of the membership campaign. The party’s aim is to reach out to the common man and the last person in the village, he says. The party’s exuberance is based on the fact that it has witnessed a manifold jump in its membership after its Delhi debut, with the online membership during December 8-31 alone crossing the previous online figure of over 3.5 lakh. AAP spokesperson Dilip Pandey says, “Till January 16, around 15 lakh people joined the party. Excluding the drive from December 8 to 31, offline 10 lakh people and online nearly four lakh people have become members.” AAP member Adarsh Shastri, who quit Apple, Mumbai, in December, claims the response has been phenomenal in Delhi, UP, Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat and Maharashtra, as also in Kerala and Karnataka, while in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, it is picking up. Getting there
Quick dial Aam Aadmi Party has launched an anti-corruption helpline in Delhi, besides several phone numbers regarding any questions about the party and to enrol new members. MUMBAI Celebrities, former bankers, stock brokers and social activists are jostling with the common people like taxi drivers to sign up for membership with AAP Party in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra. Party office-bearers say over five lakh people signed up across the state within days of its Main Bhi Aam Aadmi campaign. Though the rush has cooled down somewhat in the absence of AAP on the ground in Mumbai, the office-bearers estimate that the total membership in Maharashtra may have crossed seven lakh. Apart from registering on the party’s website, people are also sending missed calls on a mobile number publicised by the party. Work on collating the number of members is still going on, party officials say. In some parts, AAP’s popularity has sparked off a backlash, with the party’s volunteers being threatened. Early last week, the party office in Aurangabad was allegedly attacked by workers of the Nationalist Congress Party, shortly after a membership drive was kicked off in the town. Among some big names joining AAP include former RBS CEO Meera Sanyal, Sanjeev Aga, former director Idea Cellular, stock broker Sanju Varma, Shereen Gandhy, owner of Chemould art gallery, oncologist MS Navare, and actors Raj Zutshi, Tejaswini Kolhapure and Lilliput. Social activist Medha Patkar, head of the National Alliance for People’s Movements, has extended support to AAP, but is yet to join it. She told reporters that more than 250 organisations that are part of her group were still deliberating on the issue. Getting there
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Centralised missed-call system