Eye on 2022 municipal polls, AAP launches mega outreach campaign in Delhi

Deputy CM Manish Sisodia said regardless of whether one considers themselves a state-level leader or national level, everyone has to work at the mandal level to strengthen this campaign

Eyeing a maiden victory in the Delhi civic body polls, scheduled to be held early next year, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday launched a mega “MCD Badlaav Campaign (Reform MCDs Campaign)” through which the Arvind Kejriwal-led party plans to enlist into its ranks at least five million people of Delhi.

Aam Aadmi Party senior leader Manish Sisodia and AAP Delhi convenor Gopal Rai during the launch of the MCD Badlaav campaign at the AAP office in New Delhi on Saturday. (HT photo)

Addressing party workers, after launching the campaign, Delhi environment minister and AAP’s Delhi unit convener Gopal Rai said as part of the new campaign, their cadre will hit every street, lane, booth and ward in Delhi to enlist people.

“The last time we contested the MCD (municipal corporations of Delhi) elections, we were contesting for the very first time and had no experience at all — we were only learning. What we learnt was that, if we want Delhi to shine, and if we want it to be more beautiful and healthier, cleanliness is of utmost importance. Which is why we are launching this MCD Badlaav Campaign. We will go to every corner in Delhi and let people know that just the way they chose Arvind Kejriwal to eradicate corruption from the Delhi government, the time has now come for them to reform the MCD. We can improve everything in Delhi — we can give free water, free electricity, we can install CCTV cameras — but when people open their doors to step out, what they see is garbage littered on streets, and that it sours the mood. We have to take on this responsibility of making Delhi a better capital city,” he said.

“We have to take the lead in this fight for change. We have three months left before the elections in March. Which is why, starting tomorrow, we will be setting up day-long membership camps at every booth and mandal in Delhi. Through these camps, we will do our campaigning and people can come to join the party. Our target is to make 50 lakh people members of the Aam Aadmi Party in the coming three months,” Rai told party workers.

Deputy CM Manish Sisodia said regardless of whether one considers themselves a state-level leader or national level, everyone has to work at the mandal level to strengthen this campaign.

“If you don’t work in your area, you will have to answer to the entire mission. No one should think that they can get away by just marking their attendance and posting a few photos on Facebook. When you do actual work in your mandal, it will be apparent.”

Terming the Aam Aadmi Party “a movement”, and not just a party, the deputy CM said, “We have to change the politics of this country. We had said that we will end VIP culture, and we will end red beacons. On its first day in office in 2015, this governmen became the first in the country to put an end to the red beacon culture. It was only when people started talking of Aam Aadmi Party’s politics, the movement they had created, how the red beacons had come off vehicles that even Modi ji remembered that he too had a beacon atop his car that he needed to remove. The one thing that all of us revolutionaries have to do, is change the way politics happen and is perceived in this country, and you have already begun the task.”

“When people see one of our party workers, they say “you and your party have done amazing work; you did so much for the education facilities and even made electricity free of cost”. This is what the fight is about. When a BJP worker goes anywhere in the country, what would the people say to him/her? Congress, which has been in power for the past several decades, what questions would people ask them? Would they even have anything to say?” Sisodia said.