AAP’s warriors to keep tabs on voters’ pulse in Delhi’s seven seats

NEW DELHI: A flurry of activity can be seen every day from 8am till 10pm in AAP’s election war room where a team of engineers and postgraduates remains busy trying to arm candidates and the party with information and managing campaigns at the ground level for the Lok Sabha polls. The team has also been preparing the manifesto, creating social media content, managing legal affairs, apart from pushing forward other strategies to help the party win.

The team of 20 warriors, three among them women, includes six engineers, five postgraduates and one PhD researcher. Working frantically on their laptops, they are aided by landlines, printers, list of important phone numbers and punchlines to support the full statehood demand of the party.
The war room appears cramped as it has been carved out of a room with an attached toilet at the party headquarters. But the team members feel that it is good as it puts them in close proximity to maintain a high level of communication among themselves.
They sit facing the walls emblazoned with punchlines on full statehood so that they remain focused on AAP’s key election issue. One wall has huge detailed political maps of all the seven parliamentary constituencies to help them organise rallies and reach out to the party’s boots on the ground.
A writing board hanging on a wall serves as a guide for those managing the election meetings of CM Arvind Kejriwal and other star campaigners of the party. “In the morning, we write the detailed campaign schedule for the day on it,” said a team member.
Apart from the central war room, there are seven smaller ones established in the seven parliamentary constituencies. The important units include media, social media, technical support, frontal organisations team, public meetings of party’s star campaigners, team dedicated for obtaining relevant permissions from Election Commission, manifesto preparation, daily research issues, etc.
Senior party volunteer, Suresh Kathait, the in-charge of the central war room, handles internal party coordination and communication. “We collect daily reports from observers appointed in all 70 assembly constituencies,” said a team member.
“One of the important tasks of the central war room team is to get the daily progress reports from all seven parliamentary constituencies. This work is monitored round the clock and the core team keeps an eye on the volunteers given functional responsibilities in shifts,” said Delhi convener Gopal Rai.
All the members are required to submit daily reports to the party leadership by 10pm. “The campaign strategy is made according to the reports received from the volunteers in the war room,” said Rai.
The party has appointed one coordinator for every Lok Sabha constituency and they communicate with 10 observers each. “In the next phase, the coordination will be extended to the 70 assembly constituencies and all municipal wards,” Rai said.