By Nivedita Singh
New Delhi, Feb 16 (IANS): After the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) registered a big victory in the Delhi Assembly polls, the talks of party expanding its model to Punjab in the 2022 Assembly polls have already begun.
Speaking to IANS, AAP's Punjab unit Chief Bhagwant Mann said the issues which Delhi has faced in the past several decades were also being faced in Punjab.
"The governments in Punjab have ignored the common man and their issues. It is time that the Delhi model should be implemented in the state," Mann told IANS.
He said he will be happy if the Delhi model is implemented in Punjab also. "The mandate the AAP received in Delhi was because of the hard work it has done in the last five years," he said.
On new additions in the party, Mann said anyone who wishes to work for the nation building can join the AAP.
"Party will welcome all those who will be ready for working for Punjab to make it a better state. Those who are ready to work for this vision without any conditions and greed are welcome in the party."
The AAP emerged as the second largest party in Punjab in the 2017 Assembly polls. It is now the main opposition in the state.
Speaking about the plan of expansion, leader of opposition in the Punjab Assembly, Harpal Singh Cheema said the party is yet to plan for the expansion.
"We will be planing in coming months the expansion of party in Punjab. The AAP model of governance is loved by people across the country," Cheema told IANS.
"Congress and BJP have ruled for so many years, but they have failed to make this impression among the people that Kejriwal and his government has made in just five years."
He said while the AAP worked for people, the other parties worked for "making money" and "looting people".
He added "other parties are trying to divide the people, AAP is not just uniting them, but also making their lives easy."
On who will be leading the party in Punjab during the Assembly polls, Cheema said the core committee will take the final decision.
"Mann is our president in the state and we will be working on his orders," the MLA added.
Mann is the only Aam Aadmi Party leader in the Lok Sabha. He won both 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Gupta also supported the statements of the two leaders.
"We gave a model which is liked by the everyone. It is time that Delhi model should be implemented across the country," Gupta told IANS.
AAP had won 67 of the 70 seats in 2015. In the just concluded Assembly polls in Delhi, the party got 62 of the 70 seats.
Now, it is planning to fight the local body elections in Delhi, as well as other states.
The party will also be focusing on the Assembly polls in the other states as well.