AAP launches war room for coordinating its MCD polls campaign

The war room has maps of all MCD wards and photos of the landfill sites in the Capital with the AAP making the garbage mountains one of the key issues in its election campaign

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has set up a ‘war room’ at the party headquarters on Deen Dayal Upahdyay Marg to monitor its preparations, campaigning, public meetings and events related to the December 4 MCD elections in Delhi.

Delhi AAP convener at the party’s war room, launched ahead of the MCD polls slated for December 4. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

“The war room will monitor the events by all the star campaigners. Management of Jansamvads, listing of speakers and the invitations to the public will be monitored from the MCD war room. A central team of lawyers is being formed to ensure successful nomination on all 250 seats, with one lawyer overseeing one assembly constituency each,” said AAP Delhi convenor Gopal Rai.

The war room has maps of all MCD wards and photos of the landfill sites in the capital with the AAP making the garbage mountains one of the key issues in its election campaign.

Elections to the MCD will be held on December 4, and counting of votes will be taken up on December 7, according to the polls schedule announced by the state election commission last week. It’s a high stakes fight for both the AAP and the BJP since MCD is a key component of the city’s governance -- and in areas that touch people every day. The municipal body administers nearly 80% of Delhi’s area providing nearly as many services as the city government.

For the AAP, it will be only be the second outing at the civic polls. Despite achieving unprecedented victories in the 2015 and 2020 assembly elections, the AAP failed to upstage the BJP at MCD. For the BJP, which has ruled for three consecutive terms at the MCD, the polls will be important to maintain its sway in the local political landscape after two back-to-back defeats at the assembly polls.

Being run by a dedicated team of volunteers, the AAP will also manage its social media campaign for the MCD elections from the war room, said a party official associated with the set up.

“The war room will also help us coordinate the public engagements of our candidates. Training of booth-level workers will also be managed from here. Then, there is a team that will handle logistics required for the campaign and oversee other measures,” said Rai.

The party has appointed a person incharge to coordinate the various activities to be managed from the war room, the party official said.

Earlier, the party had appointed seven in-charges for the seven Lok Sabha constituencies and 14 district-wise in-charges. “There will be a separate person in-charge for each of the 250 wards. They will relay information about developments in their wards to the war room,” said Rai.