Sisodia, cabinet ministers campaign for bypolls

Senior AAP leader and Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and his other cabinet colleagues on Sunday campaigned for the party candidates in the bypolls to the five municipal corporation wards. Polling in the five wards will be held on February 28.

Two former AAP MLAs are in the fray besides other three local leaders for the five seats. Political parties in Delhi are seeing byelections to the five municipal wards - 32N (Rohini-C), 2-E (Trilokpuri), 08-E (Kalyanpuri), 41-E (Chauhan Bangar) and 62N (Shalimar Bagh North) - as a testing ground for the municipal polls next year. While the AAP is in power in the Delhi government, all three municipal corporations are ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

Sisodia held a ‘padyatra’ in east Delhi’s Kondli and Trilokpuri areas in support of AAP candidate Dhirendra (Bunty Gautam) who is an AAP leader from Kondli. Social welfare minister Rajendra Pal Gautam also campaigned in the same areas, health minister Satyendar Jain held a public meeting at Rohini Sector-24.

Environment minister Gopal Rai, who is also AAP’s Delhi unit convener, held a meeting with booth-level workers of the AAP at the Chauhan Bangar ward in Seelampur constituency. Former AAP MLA from Seelampur Mohammad Ishraq Khan is contesting from Chauhan Bangar.

Transport minister Kailash Gahlot campaigned for Ram Chander, the AAP candidate from 32N (Rohini-C) ward. Chander had won the Bawana assembly seat in the bypoll in 2017 on AAP ticket.

“The AAP leaders are trying to reach out to most of the Delhi residents by going door to door ahead of the MCD by-elections. During the campaigns, the AAP leaders are telling the citizens of Delhi about the rampant corruption in the BJP-ruled MCD for the last 15 years. Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP is the only political party that can bring development to Delhi,” said Sisodia.

Rai said this is not just the election of five wards, but also the “semi-final” to overthrow the corrupt 15-year rule of BJP in the MCD.

“The BJP did politics of hatred during the Delhi assembly elections, but people choose AAP again under CM Kejriwal. The AAP will defeat BJP with a historical majority in the MCD by-election just the way it did in the Delhi assembly election. The Congress will not do any good to the citizens of Delhi, but only cut votes,” said Rai.