This will be the second election that AAP will contest in the Northeast after its failure to open its account in the 2016 Assam assembly polls.
New Delhi: Unfazed by its setbacks in assembly elections in Punjab, Goa and Gujarat, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is now getting ready to make its electoral foray into Nagaland, with health, education, roads, and fighting corruption as its main planks.
Assembly elections are due in the state early next year and the party has said that it will contest all 60 seats. This will be the second election that AAP will contest in the Northeast after its failure to open its account in the 2016 Assam assembly elections, where it contested 6 of 126 seats.
“The minute you land in Dimapur and move towards the city, you realise that political parties have failed to provide infrastructure. There’s hardly any road there,” AAP national spokesperson Ashutosh told ThePrint.
He was in Dimapur recently to announce that AAP would contest elections in the state.
“The roads are in a pathetic condition. Health and education sectors are going from bad to worse. We don’t see any development in Nagaland,” Dr Amos Longkumer, AAP’s state convener, told ThePrint.
Besides health, education and roads, fighting corruption will be another focus area for the AAP in this election, said party sources.
When asked how the AAP is going to fight the BJP, which is part of the present Democratic Alliance of Nagaland government, Ashutosh said that the BJP does not offer any real alternative in governance.
Highlighting what he said was a lack of development in the state, Ashutosh said, “Nagaland is a small state of 11 lakh voters and with an annual budget of Rs 18,000 crore, but it has no medical college.”
Stressing the need for ‘clean politics’, Longkumer said in the absence of clean elections, people are not able to choose the “right leader”. He said AAP will set an example by fielding honest people and break the “tradition of cash for votes”.
When asked how AAP will address the tax imposed by militant outfits which have been running “parallel governments” in the state for decades, Ashutosh said he didn’t see it as a law and order issue.
“Deal with the development issue, then I’m sure the national security issues will be minimised,” he said referring to the ‘Naga peace accord’ signed between the Centre and the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (I-M).
On 15 December, the Nagaland assembly passed a resolution demanding the implementation of the peace accord before the assembly elections.
“The problem in Nagaland is that there is no development. Naturally, then the people will feel betrayed,” Ashutosh said. “But if the government works for them; development is uniform and every community is treated well, then I don’t see any reason for people to go the other way.”
AAP is expected to release its manifesto and a list of candidates by 10 January.
Party politics won’t make any difference in Nagaland for I myself have witnessed some parties coming forward with similar committment to improve road, health and education but in the end they end up following the “same old tradition of cohesive politics-corruption strategy “. Until and unless the people of Nagaland change their attitude of “buy-my-vote” and a leader who is a son of the soil comes to power nothing will change the current political scenario of Nagaland.
Comment: Request AAP to work instead of playing politics over the agony of common people. Select a person who can lead or else putting some person expert in critics will not work.
Let’s see what change they’ll go to bring to our corrupted state, this sounds weird but looks interesting at the same timeas pollitcis in Nagaland are run by people only for their veseted interest, While t govt of Nagaland headed by it’s people can’t fulfill the needs by the common people can outside party do favours of the Naga’s of Nagaland? If yes they can do as mentioned in da above statement The AAP is Guna gain interdt if the property if Nagaland.
If AAP wins and make Nagaland free of potholes and corruption..I’m inviting all my abroad friends.