Without an ally or a CM face, Aam Aadmi Party supporters in Haryana say they are in the fight for the long run.

Their hopes hinge on local fissures in the state’s established parties. Relevance rather than victory is their goal, with their leader Arvind Kejriwal declaring in rallies: “No government in Haryana can be made without us.”

It’s a lonely drive for Vijay Lodhar in his electric rickshaw in Jind district’s Uchana Kalan constituency. Showcasing banners of local candidate Pawan “Fauji” Kumar, Lodhar drives through villages with a loudspeaker that promises free power and water if the AAP wins.

Vijay Lodhar, in his electric rickshaw, interacts with the elders of Chhatar village in Uchana Kalan, Haryana. Pheroze L. Vincent

In Chhatar village, Lodhar meets a group of elders who tell him he is wasting his time. The fight, they aver, is between the Congress and the BJP, with the AAP as well as the other parties and Independents just “cutting votes”.

“Tauji (uncle), what did you get by voting for all these parties? Do you get electricity 24x7? Kejriwal will give it free,” Lodhar retorts, pointing to the home of one of the elders, Balwan Singh, where there is a power cut.

“We are building our organisation,” Lodhar tells The Telegraph. “Kejriwal will be Prime Minister one day. Elections come and go; think about the future of your children. The future is ours.”

But Balwan, a Congress supporter, has his own argument. “Ek baat hai (There’s this one thing),” he says. “No one hates Kejriwal. Apne INDIA ka hee hai (He is part of our INDIA bloc). But they don’t even have a CM candidate.”

Although the AAP is contesting from all the 90 seats, it is invisible or irrelevant in most of the constituencies. But closer to Punjab, its cadres from the neighbouring state are influencing the campaign.

At the party’s campaign office in Rajound in the Kalayat constituency, Gagandeep Saini stands out from the rest of the AAP campaigners.

Saini is vice-president of the AAP’s legal wing in Punjab, and has come to lend a hand to Anurag Dhanda, senior vice-president of the party in Haryana and candidate from Kalayat in Kaithal district. It’s one of the seats the AAP had insisted on during the failed alliance talks with the Congress.

Saini is impeccably dressed and manages the show like he would a law firm — marking a contrast to the hurly-burly around the Haryana volunteers. He politely reminds them that shopkeepers need to be personally requested to vote for the party, and that AAP rallies need to stick to the schedule.

“I’m here to help. The people of this region are all close to each other, like brothers. They can see the work we are doing in Punjab and Delhi. We are gaining ground,” he tells this newspaper.

Baniyas — the community of traders that Kejriwal belongs to --- are considered the BJP’s vote bank here, but an AAP source says the party is focusing on them at the prodding of former Delhi minister Manish Sisodia.

“He met some of them while he was in jail (in the excise policy case), and they told him they were under trial in false cases of tax violation. This is a community that is looking for an alternative to the BJP,” the source says.

In Rajound’s market, jeweller Manoj Mehta says: “We think the BJP is the best party, but its MLAs aren’t. Roads that were good earlier are now broken. There are no colleges here and we are forced to send our children to study elsewhere.”

He adds: “Law and order was worse under the Congress but civic work happened. This time I feel the Congress’s campaign is slow and the AAP is gaining ground.”

The hutments of the Scheduled Caste Jhimars lie outside Kalayat’s Khurda village. Domestic power lines end 100 metres from the settlement of these daily wage earners. Electricity comes only from the agricultural line, and for just eight hours a day.

“When (Congress leader Bhupinder) Hoodaji comes to power, I hope they give us electricity. Children can’t study at night,” villager Dharam Pal says.

“The village school is only till Class VIII, and some of the teachers don’t come regularly. We have asked Kamlesh Dhandaji (the incumbent BJP MLA) several times and she promised to fix things, but she has not.”

Of the various parties that have come here to campaign, Pal cites the AAP as the one that talks about “schools and electricity” the most.

“I don’t know if they can win, but it will be good if they make Haryana as good as Delhi,” he says.

Haryana votes on October 5