New Delhi, (Samajweekly) Rajya Sabha MP and senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh has said the BJP-led Central government needs to provide answers to a plethora of questions before going to the 2024 general elections, while underlining that the Lok Sabha polls are going to be “a big challenge for the Opposition and its strategy should be to offer better governance to the country, and not defeat a person”.
During an exclusive interview with IANS, Singh said if the general election is contested over the issues that the country is facing today, and the promises made by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to the public, it will have no answer.
Q: We are now a year away from the Lok Sabha polls. After AAP got the national status, how does the party see the 2024 election?
A: Undoubtedly, 2024 is a big challenge for all of us which should be candidly admitted. Also, ahead of the election, there are a plethora of questions that this government needs to answer. What happened to those promises made by the government like 2 crore jobs every year, action on black money, bullet train, ‘pucca’ houses for all… all have been proved to be far-fetched dreams. Most importantly, the Centre turning blind eye towards the big businessmen has resulted in waiving off around Rs 11 thousand crore of banks’ money and Rs 5.50 lakh crore corporate taxes.
This has resulted in the higher inflation which the people across the country are facing today. We will go to the 2024 general election with all these issues. If the election is fought on these issues leaving the politics of hatred behind, we believe the BJP will have no answer on these issues.
Q: Is AAP thinking of any ‘common candidate’ for the Opposition camp in the 2024 election?
A: If any party starts targeting the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he knows how to come out of the situation. He will say all parties have come together to defeat him. The opposition parties need to re-think over the strategy whether any ‘common candidate’ can fetch the results. The opposition should make a strategy that no one can question their intention. The opposition strategy should be to give better governance to the country, not defeat a person. As far as the role of the AAP is concerned in the general election, the party will decide the further course.
Q: After 10 years of formation, AAP has fulfilled the criteria of becoming a national party…
A: When we formed the party, the leaders from the Congress as well as BJP used to laugh at us saying if the party (AAP) even gets 6 per cent of vote share, they will quit politics. However, just after one year of the party’s formation in 2012, we formed the government for the first time in Delhi in 2013. We got 67 seats in 2015 and 62 seats in the 2020 Delhi assembly election. Again in 2022, we formed the government in Punjab with landslide victory and have been able to grab more than 6 per cent of vote shares with 2 seats in Goa. We have also made inroads in Gujarat and have ended the 15-year-rule of the BJP in the MCD.
So, the last year has been a golden one in the decade-long journey of AAP much like the year 2013 was for us. In 2013, we formed the government which gave us the strength and the energy… and on the same lines, the year 2022 has given us national status, making way to expand the party across the country.
Q: How does the party see this remarkable victory in MCD?
A: The BJP had been saying that we (AAP) have always defeated Congress, not them. When former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit was in power in the state, BJP ruled the MCD. Even when we got 67 out of 70 assembly seats, the BJP was in power in the MCD. But, now we have defeated the BJP, dislodging them from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) after 15 years. So, AAP’s victory over BJP in the MCD polls has multifarious dimensions and multiple meanings.
Q: How does AAP see the MCD mayor election scheduled for next week as the BJP has also fielded the candidate?
A: Let them field the candidate for mayor, but the equation is with us. We have a total of 134 councillors, while BJP has bagged only 104 wards in the MCD. What is their basis for fielding the candidate for the mayor? It seems they are involved in horse trading.
Q: Many states are going to the assembly polls in 2023. Could AAP also contest the election in those states?
A: This is the prerogative of the national leadership to decide in which state the party wants to contest the assembly election. But, as far the matter of the party’s expansion is concerned, we will expand it to every state at the grassroots level. The process has already started to strengthen the organisational structure of the party at the booth levels. Also, we will contest every seat in the Uttar Pradesh civic body polls.
