After several opinion polls indicated a resounding win for Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab, the top bureaucracy in the state have reportedly begun contacting the party leadership with ideas and plans related to several key issues.
One AAP leader said, “Yes, our leadership has been contacted by several top civil servants, who care about the state and want new ideas and plans implemented to get Punjab out of its current situation. We’ve been humbled by the response from the bureaucracy. It’s clear that the officers have good intention, but they haven’t been allowed to function well. This will change, should we form the government.”
Top among the ideas received so far is the plan to tackle the growing menace of drugs in the state. Most other ideas are around the announcements made by Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, during his visit to the state earlier this month.
Kejriwal, in his Youth Manifesto, had promised to end the state’s drug crisis in a month if voted to power in the 2017 Assembly elections.
His other promises included creating 25 lakh new jobs for young workers and free WiFi in the state’s villages.
Kejriwal, who’s now effectively relinquished himself from the day-to-day running of Delhi government, is reportedly spending a lot of time meeting the officers, taking phone calls from them and ‘listening to their ideas.’
This comes after several poll surveys indicated that AAP would win more than 100 seats in next year’s assembly elections. The latest among the poll surveys is the prediction by VDP Associates, which gave AAP 100 seats, 12 to Akali Dal, 3 to Congress and 1 to BJP in the 117-seat assembly.
Previous survey by C-Voter too had predicted a landslide for AAP.
The Kejriwal-led party had surprised poll pundits during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections when it won four seats in Punjab. Since then, it’s made Punjab its prime target, working hard to build an organisation in the state in a bid to dislodge the ruling Akali Dal-BJP combine.
