NESHWIN ALMEIDA
neshwin@herald-goa.com
QUEPEM: It’s 7 pm, the Aam Admi Party makes an announcement that Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia’s last stop for the day is the Sarvajanik Ganesh Mandal at Quepem for Aarti.
Post 7.45 pm, volunteers appear and ten minutes later Sisodia arrives at the scene, in a low profile, simple convoy. There’s no Ganesh Aarti as promised by AAP volunteers but its Sisodia’s visit to the Sarvajanik Mandal stall before heading for an informal discussion to the nearby party office. With candidates not announced, there is a sense of factions and groups in the AAP Quepem and Curchorem block. Manish Sisodia is formally greeted and given flowers, and bouquets but at separate spots under the same roof and by separate groups of AAP supporters. The competitive spirit is seen amongst the party members as different candidates and ticket aspirants want a good rapport with the AAP leaders.
A little camaraderie, some small prayer time and a few interactions later Sisodia is ready to head to the AAP office a few footsteps away.
“To be honest, only the media keeps asking me about the sex-tape and controversies AAP has gone through. But people have seen how we grew in strength and have led the change. We will sack a minister and dismiss an MLA for any kind of wrong or a corruption, that’s an area where the AAP will never turn back,” Sisodia tells Herald.
But he is reminded that the AAP Minister Sandeep Kumar being involved in a sex scandal is an outcome of the AAP not able to check the background and screen its candidates, which can be a repeated in Goa.
“Actually, I can assure that by year end we will have a full list of candidates which we will take with us and go into these polls and surely have a landslide victory in Goa. We have laid norms and conditions for our senior AAP team to consider candidates and screen them and the first list will be out soon and we’ll do the best we can to do background checks and check their character.
Meanwhile, the workers of Quepem have questions. “Quepem is a backward constituency with seven panchayats and a municipality and is difficult to cover with forest spaces in between and the people have a lot of questions based on AAP’s promises in Delhi,” explains a supporter. They want an assurance from Sisodia that the AAP government will replicate the Delhi election promises and will similarly half the electricity bills tariff and provide free water supply to all the people of Goa.
Unable to commit to a demand like this he plays down the issue and urges party workers to continue going home to home and finishing their AAP canvassing and let the Goa dialogues decide the best manifesto for Goa. He also diverted the attention from the water supply and electricity sops and told party workers to also discuss Goa’s bad education and healthcare sector.
He took a dig at Manohar Parrikar and stated that the Defense Minister is not really on a vacation in Goa currently.
but he’s always in Goa and he makes short vacation trips to Delhi to serve the defense ministry. He also blamed the bad governance of this government to be a reason behind the terrible roads across Goa these monsoons.
Sisodia took a dig at the Congress and BJP stating that everyone in these parties is corrupt and wants a bribe to do jobs and hence the AAP needs to fill this void in Goa.
On vital issues like mining, increasing the mining cap, tackling corruption, the current decisions of this government on industry and whether they be reversed or not, he only blamed journalists for misquoting him or Kejriwal and refused to divulge into these concerns in Goa.
Sisodia’s informal visit is many such that he and Kejriwal plan to take to woo voters but until candidates are not announced people are still edgy and wary as to who will represent their AAP interest in their respective constituencies.
