Durgesh Pathak says Congress, Akalis are no competition for AAP

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab is high on confidence. With the Huffpost-Cvoter survey placing them in a comfortable position in the state, all eyes are on Durgesh Pathak, who has before him the task of revamping AAP’s organisational structure, strengthening its volunteer base and expanding their reach in Punjab.

When asked which party, between the Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal, posed a bigger challenge for AAP, a confident Pathak told Newslaundry, “None!” According to him the survey shows those parties winning just “three to five seats” and he doesn’t see them as a threat to AAP.

Even the presence of  campaign strategist Prashant Kishore, who is working for the Congress Party and Captain Amarinder Singh, has not ruffled the AAP’s feathers. Kishore is famed for running successful campaigns for Narendra Modi, during the general election of 2014, and Nitish Kumar’s Grand Alliance in Bihar’s Assembly polls, in 2016.

Pathak, 27, is spearheading AAP’s Punjab Dialogue. One challenge will be to address the state’s agrarian crisis. The other issue that the party will focus on is Punjab’s drug menace. “We will have to send 80 per cent of Punjab’s youth into rehabilitation,” said Pathak. According to him, AAP will soon release details of an affordable and impactful rehab programme in the coming months.

Pathak hails from village Bakhira in Sant Kabir Nagar of Uttar Pradesh and his non-Punjabi background has already met with some resistance. Member of Parliament Harinder Singh Khalsa, who represents Fategarh Sahib and is now under suspension from AAP, made the statement that “people from UP and Bihar are dictating terms in Punjab”. Pathak, however, chose to not react to these comments.