After its stupendous success in the recent Punjab Assembly elections, the Aam Admi Party (AAP) is looking to expand its base in Telangana by promoting the "Kejriwal model of governance," a senior party leader said.
AAP's Delhi legislator Somnath Bharti toured the state for two days this week, with the party's election in-charge for the southern state visiting Warangal and Hyderabad.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led party would be taking up a 'padayatra' in Telangana, beginning April 14, the birth anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar, "going house to house", Mr Bharti told PTI over phone from Delhi.
AAP aims to usher in the "Kejriwal model of governance" in Telangana, he added.
"After Punjab's massive 'inquilab' (revolution), I am in receipt of calls from many, many people from all the parties. We are cautious that we don't want to take any corrupt person or anybody who has a bad background," Bharti said.
AAP would never indulge in religion or caste-based politics, but spread the message of "Kejriwal model of governance".
When pointed out that the political space is competitive in Telangana among the ruling TRS and opposition BJP and Congress and that his party does not even have a proper organisation in place in the state, Bharti said AAP's competition is not with anybody but with one idea.
The idea under which every political party, either in Telangana or in any other part of the country, gets grouped together is religion or caste or corruption-based politics, whereas AAP stands for "work-based politics", he claimed.
People want employment and solutions to their problems, he stated.
Kejriwal has enunciated his party's ideology to be "honesty, patriotism and humanity" and with that, the party has given amazing governance in the national capital, he said.
On Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's recent efforts to unite opposition parties against the BJP, he said mere opposition to the saffron party would not work and that an alternative agenda for people is needed.
He also criticised the ruling TRS for allegedly not filling up job vacancies in the government.
Mr Bharti claimed that his two-day tour in Telangana received "wonderful" response.
He further insisted that several leaders are interested in joining the AAP in Telangana. "We will open cards a little later," he said.
He said he had meetings with leaders from different parties and organisations during his stay in Hyderabad.
The AAP on February 1 dissolved all existing committees of its Telangana unit and constituted a search committee to bring “new-generation leaders” into the party fold to expand its base in the southern state.
The party's move to restructure its unit in the state to increase its base with a new plan was seen in political circles as a part of its preparations for the next assembly polls in Telangana scheduled to be held in December, 2023.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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