In a bid to woo the Punjabi and other Hindu voters, AAP leader- Atishi has started using ‘Singh’ as her surname, a year after she had dropped Marlena as her surname. The reason stated for using the ‘Singh’ surname is that- both her father and her husband are ‘Singh’. What a timing to switch the surname considering the fact that Delhi elections are round the corner. According to a report of ‘The Print’, AAP leader is reaching out to her constituents over text messages with the new sign-off.
Notably, in a similar move before the Lok Sabha elections, AAP had asked its declared Lok Sabha candidate from East Delhi constituency- Atishi Marlena, to drop her Marlena surname. AAP had asked Atishi Marlena to remove the ‘Marlena’ surname because the party was afraid that the ‘Marlena’ surname could be construed as a Christian surname. She had been asked to drop the surname from her Twitter handle and the publicity materials. Atishi had first drawn attention when the General Administrations Department had cancelled the appointment of nine advisors and consultants to the Delhi cabinet in various fields. Atishi Marlena was working as an advisor to Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia on education.
Atishi’s surname came into existence by combining the names of two communist figures from history, (Karl) Marx+(Vladimir) Lenin- ‘Marlena’. Interestingly, following the party’s instruction, she had dropped the surname ‘Marlena’ from her Twitter handle and publicity material to dodge rumours that she was a Christian. Atishi is from a Punjabi Rajput family.
Atishi Marlena was made the in-charge for the East Delhi Lok Sabha seat in June. East Delhi is dominated by people from the Hindu community and AAP was looking to tap into the Punjabi Rajput lineage of Atishi’s family. This attempt anyhow failed miserably as Atishi lagged behind BJP’s Gautam Gambhir and Congress’ Arvinder Singh Lovely.
This time too there is an electoral equation behind using this surname as she has bagged AAP’s ticket from Kalkaji constituency. Atishi’s decision to use her real surname could be influenced by the fact that Kalkaji has a sizeable Punjabi and Hindu population.
AAP is trying to project itself as a secular option amidst BJP and the Congress with such devices, however every time, such gimmicks end up spoiling its own electoral fate. Left leaning Atishi had tried everything in order to defame BJP’s Gautam Gambhir in her quest to win the parliamentarian election, but to her surprise it ended up hurting her own constituency. She must restrain herself from frequently changing her name only for electoral prospects.