After its sterling performance in the Punjab Assembly elections, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal has appointed IIT-Delhi professor and key backroom boy in the North Indian State Sandeep Pathak as the Gujarat affairs in-charge.
Pathak, who was among the five who filed Rajya Sabha nominations from the AAP on Monday, spent three years quietly working in the background even as the AAP romped home with 92 out of 117 seats, decimating all the parties worth their salt.
This comes days after Kejriwal listed Gujarat among the priority States and is planning a massive roadshow in Gujarat’s key city Ahmedabad on April 2 with the new Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in tow.
Aiming at Gujarat December 2022 polls to expand the party’s national footprint, the AAP chief’s roadshow in Ahmedabad has been strategically planned through the city’s labour-dominated areas being called “mini-Saurashtra” with high Patel community population as well as major presence of the Dalits.
According to Gulab Singh Yadav, newly appointed election in-charge of Gujarat, “Our roadshow would be bigger than Narendra Modi’s show on March 11 (the next day of the poll results). It will start off from Baba Ambedkar Circle in Patidar-dominated Bapunagar, pass through the diamond market, Thakkarbapanagar, Torrent Power Road and conclude at Khodiyar Temple in Nikol.
Khodiyar Mata is the deity of the Leuva Patel sect of the Patidars who have a major presence in Saurashtra and they voted for the Congress party in a big way in the 2017 elections.
Pathak, who has been appointed the Gujarat affairs in-charge, holds a Ph.D. from the prestigious Cambridge University, was the backroom mastermind behind the AAP’s huge success in Punjab.
He was instrumental in increasing the party’s cadre base in the State where it formed its first government in Punjab with a thumping majority. From choosing the candidates to deciding the theme of the campaign, Pathak’s brilliance has worked wonders for the party.
Not only Gujarat where it is emerging as a serious player, the AAP on Monday announced changes in its organizational structure in 9 states, including Assam, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, Telangana, Kerala, and Punjab.
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