Free bus rides, Rs 1,000 per month for women, and Sunita Kejriwal’s travails — this is the message being taken across by women leaders and workers of the Aam Aadmi Party to Delhi’s female voters in a bid to gain their support ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Around 46% of the total voters in Delhi are women. According to the Election Commission, Delhi has a total 1.47 crore voters — 79 lakh male and 67 lakh female voters.
According to sources, the party has deployed a 2-4 member team in each mandal, ward and booth level to reach out to women, especially home makers, and tell them about the women-centric schemes and initiatives taken by the Arvind Kejriwal government.
“Earlier, we would highlight schemes like free bus travel, education for their children, electricity and the government’s plan to give Rs 1,000 to every (eligible) woman under the Mahila Samman Yojana. But after the Chief Minister’s arrest, our teams also tell women about how Bhabhi (Sunita Kejriwal) is holding the entire party together…,” said a leader from the women’s wing.
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal addresses the INDIA bloc’s rally at Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi. (Express Photo)
Another party leader said the strategy behind promoting Sunita is to woo voters as well as to make her popular among the public as she is the party’s star campaigner and will be participating in rallies and sabhas.
Sarika Chaudhary, AAP women’s wing president, said so far, 20,000 meetings have been held in slums, unauthorised colonies, and residential areas of constituencies and wards falling under the four Lok Sabha constituencies — East, South, West and New Delhi — that AAP is contesting. She said the target is to hold 45,000 meetings by the end of April.
“Due to the festival season, meetings slowed down but in the next couple of days, our target is to increase daily meetings to 4,000-4,500… Reaching out to women in affluent areas is difficult due to security reasons but women in unauthorised colonies and slums are participating in a large number of meetings…,” she said.
