SHIMLA: The central leadership of Aam Aadmi Party has decided to make Himachal Pradesh a priority State for the party and has already started a meticulous organisational building exercise here. Disclosing this, central party observers led by Mr. Adarsh Shastri on Thursday said the party under its programme “Mission Vistaar” has successfully conducted district wise meetings in the hill State in the first phase and would soon announce its State and district office bearers.
The adhoc committees would be formed for next one year and after the final membership drive the fresh elected body would be formed before June 2015. For training the organisation cadres and to connect with masses the party would organize four big conventions in the four Loksabha constituencies in the State, said the Observer.
Clearing the air on the existing organisational setup and claims and counter claims by various leaders, some of them self-styled, Mr. Shastri declared all groups and office posts as null and void and even issued show cause notices to some of them. Giving them a week’s time he said, strong actions could be taken against them if they fail to respond.
Party Co-Observers for Himachal Harsh Kalra and Khem Chand Jaghirdhar said the AAP during its visit to the hill State has identified important State specific issues like water problem, environmental degradation, drug menace, unemployment and stray cattle and monkey menace. But still the most important subject here is the “substitution politics” of BJP and Congress, for whom all peoples’ issues are secondary, said the AAP leaders. Like elsewhere we would fight for the “system change” in Himachal and expose both these parties who are taking turns in power sharing and consciously keeping the common-man backward.
They said it is the PIL by AAP leader Mr. Prashant Bhushan that is exposing the corruption and money laundering cases of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. Had the BJP been serious on tackling this issue Mr. Dhumal could have registered an FIR against Virbhadra Singh. All important issues have gone in background and the politics of Himachal is reduced to a fight between two main political families of these parties, they alleged.
The AAP leaders when asked on any future alliances with likeminded forces in the State, replied in negative and said there is no question of any electoral political alliances but the mass struggles can be taken up jointly with the compatible NGOs and social groups.
While talking on the national political scenario and Mr. Modi’s advent in Indian political scene Mr. Shastri, a grandson of Lal Bahadur Shastri, taking a dig at the former said the so called “Desh Sewak” spends crores on his dress designing and prime ministers like Shastri went in a coat with darns to sign the Tashkent agreement.
KY Singh is a political observer and a senior journalist with an interest in a diverse set of issues related to Himachal Pradesh and other mountain states. He lives in Shimla.
