After kicking-off the election campaign in Punjab and Uttarakhand, Aam Aadmi Party chief (AAP) Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday annoounced four pre-poll promises for Goa, including 300 units of free electricity to the people of the coastal state.
Kejriwal, who landed in Goa at 2:45pm at the Dabolim Airport a day earlier, was addressing a press conference on Wednesday at AAP’s Panaji office quarters ahead of the 2022 assembly elections in the coastal state.
The AAP chief said: “Goa has seen dirty politics over the years. What is the need for elections here if buying and selling of MLAs is happening? Congress and BJP cheated people of Goa. AAP is getting immense support as people of Goa want clean and new politics. This time, Goa has decided to create a change.”
In his four promises, Kejriwal vowed that every family will get 300 units free electricity, old electricity bills will be waived off, no power cuts, and farmers with get free electricity for farming.
According to highly placed sources within AAP, consumption above 300 units would be charged at 50 per cent only.
CNN-News18 had first reported about Kejriwal’s Goa guarantees. When contacted, AAP Goa vice-president Pratima Countinho had refused to comment but stated that the party was involved in taking major decisions. Countinho added that the AAP was an alternative force to the BJP and hence, was expecting major inductions in the next few days.
Kejriwal has been powering his campaign in poll-bound states with promises of 300 units of free electricity, In Punjab, where power disruptions are a major poll plank, the Delhi chief minister made three promises — to provide 300 units of electricity free to every household in Punjab, waive off pending electricity bill of every domestic consumer and provide uninterrupted electricity supply 24 hours a day.
Pointing out that electricity tariffs were among the highest in the country despite Punjab producing more electricity than it needs, Kejriwal argued that the high rates could be explained by a ‘dirty nexus’ between the electricity companies and the political governing class of Punjab.
He replicated the model in Uttarakhand, which goes to polls in 2022. In Uttarakhand’s capital Dehradun on Sunday, Kejriwal made four big-ticket announcements to woo voters ahead of the 2022 elections — 300 units of free electricity, free power for farmers, waiver of old bills and 24-hour electricity supply.
The Delhi chief minister’s promise came just a day after he asked why the people of Uttarakhand, which generates electricity, cannot get free power like in the national capital. AAP has decided to contest the Assembly polls in the state due next year.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is looking to expand its base in six major states going for polls in the next one and a half years. Assembly elections in Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat will be held in 2022 and AAP has announced to contest polls in all the six states. Punjab is the only state where the Arvind Kejriwal-led party is a major player.
However, the inroads it made in Gujarat in the local body polls boosted AAP’s morale to fight the BJP in its home turf. While, AAP had contested most of these six states unsuccessfully in 2017, the party this time hopes to ride on Kejriwal’s popularity after he repeated his landslide victory in Delhi in February 2020 to become the Chief Minister of the national capital city for the third time.
Moreover, the AAP is promoting the ‘Delhi model’ to position itself as an alternative to Congress and BJP. AAP is also riding high after gaining political mileage over its free electricity policy in Delhi. Therefore, the party has promised free power upto 300 units in both Punjab and Uttarakhand.
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