AAP to launch a month-long campaign ahead of municipal polls

In the bypolls to five municipal wards in February this year, the AAP won four and the Congress got one seat. The BJP drew a blank.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will kick-start a campaign aimed at the Delhi municipal polls next year involving local meetings and door-to-door drives from September 1 to 30, highlighting alleged corruption in the three BJP-ruled municipal corporations (MCD), and their failures in keeping Delhi clean, said AAP Delhi convener Gopal Rai.

Delhi goes to the municipal polls next year. (PTI)

“The Aam Aadmi Party will launch a mega campaign from 1st September to 30th September to make the MCDs free of garbage and corruption. As part of the campaign, nearly 2,500 meetings will be conducted with local residents under the ‘Aapka Vidhayak Aapke Dwaar’ initiative. AAP MLAs will lead the campaign with full force,” said Rai, also a minister in the Kejriwal cabinet, at a press conference on Tuesday.

He said, “Ward-wise preparation meetings will be held in all 272 wards of Delhi from 25 to 30 August under the ‘Aapka Vidhayak Aapke Dwaar’ initiative. The people of Delhi continuously gave the BJP chance in the MCD, and in return, the BJP councillors gave garbage and corruption to the people.”

“With the support of the people, AAP will bring change in the MCD in the same way it brought change to Delhi (government). The BJP got zero seats in the MCD by-polls earlier this year. They will see the same result in the forthcoming MCD elections,” Rai added.

In the bypolls to five municipal wards in February this year, the AAP won four and the Congress got one seat. The BJP drew a blank.

Delhi goes to the municipal polls next year.

Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said, “Like all political parties, the Aam Aadmi Party is free to run its political agenda before the municipal polls but the truth is that the AAP has no interest in improving civic services, it just wants to grab power in the civic bodies.”

“It is sad that the AAP has chosen to play dirty politics against municipal corporations at a time when Delhi gets inundated for days after short spells of rains, the water supply and sewage services have almost collapsed due to corruption in the jal board, and today even the Delhi High Court has sought response from the Delhi Jal Board on its accounts balance sheets since 2015. The Delhi government is today answerable to the people on charges of corruption in the DTC bus purchase and scams in the jal board. To divert public attention from these serious allegations, the AAP is trying to mislead people by levelling baseless allegations against the municipal corporations. Mr Gopal Rai is a minister in the Delhi government, and if he really wishes to improve civic services he should shed political bias and make his Delhi government release long withheld municipal funds,” Kapoor said.