Billed as a “scientific structure” down to the last village, the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) huge reorganisation effort in Gujarat has ignited a wave of protest with four local leaders having put in their papers and several others being angry over Surat finding a lion’s share in the party set-up.
Within 24 hours of the announcement of the party’s 850-member organisation for the Gujarat polls, former vice-president Bhema Chaudhary has quit after he was “demoted” as the cooperative cell head. Chaudhary is part of the original AAP team since the days of the Anna Hazare movement.
Similarly, AAP’s Organising Secretary for Tapi district in South Gujarat and district working president Mahesh Gamit, Umesh Patel, who was Tapi district’s general secretary and in-charge Vyara Assembly seat, and Vyara taluka president as well as co-incharge of the assembly seat Suresh Gamit have sent a common letter of resignation.
Party insiders told Vibes of India that there is a general feeling of resentment that Surat city has got the maximum prominence with as many as 33 from the 107-member state-level organisation structure from the diamond city and a majority of them are Patidars.
Among the reasons for the city finding more representation is that the AAP got the maximum 27 seats in the Surat Municipal Corporation elections last year with the Congress scoring a zero. And this was because of the support from the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), previously led by Hardik Patel.
Secondly, State AAP President Gopal Italiya, newly appointed State President (Frontal Organisation) Kishore Desai, general secretary (organisation) Manoj Sorathia, secretary Ram Dhaduk and joint secretary Dharmesh Bhanderi are among the key positions occupied by leaders from Surat city. Desai, Sorathia, Dhaduk and Bhanderi are among the original AAP team from the Anna Hazare movement against corruption.
There are murmurs within the party that the North Gujarat region doesn’t find adequate representation in the State-level organisational structure. An AAP activist, Umang Patel, has tagged a Facebook post to the leaders stating that, “Injustice has been meted to the North Gujarat region in the State unit. Dedicated grassroots workers like Kaushik Patel and local leaders like Vijay Patel, who won the taluka panchayat seat, have not been given space in the new set-up.”
Notwithstanding all this, the AAP 24 hours ago gave indications that it was battle-ready to take on the all-powerful BJP in Gujarat. The party’s Gujarat affairs in-charge Sandeep Pathak, who is being hailed as the Prashant Kishore of AAP, told a press conference that his party will go to the polls with a chief ministerial face. The name will be declared later.
He also claimed that the AAP had already laid out an elaborate organisational structure right down to every village ensuring caste equations, regional balance and social engineering.
With a view to sending out an effective political message to various sections, the AAP has strategically named the party’s Dalit cell Jai Bhim Morcha and Adivasi unit Birsa Munda Morcha.
Read More: AAP To Launch ‘Bijli Andolan’ In Gujarat On June 15
