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AAP releases manifesto for Ahmedabad local polls, promises to halve property tax
The party has separately released a report card on the issues its volunteers have raised since 2018 related to the BJP-controlled municipal body’s performance
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has promised to halve the property tax and to phase out professional tax in its manifesto ahead of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation polls on February 21. The manifesto was released on Wednesday and also pledges to set up women’s legal aid and counselling as well as and sports and self-defence training centres in every municipal ward.
The party has separately released a report card on the issues its volunteers have raised since 2018 related to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-controlled municipal body’s performance. The report card has raised issues like overflowing gutter lines, unkempt roads, chemical pollution in the Sabarmati river, choked drainage lines, shrinking parking spaces.
Former deputy municipal commissioner Ashutosh Vyas and Kishore Desai, who has headed AAP in Gujarat, were part of the committee that has prepared the manifesto.
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“Our overarching key campaign theme is corruption at every level since this is central to all that ails Ahmedabad and explains the apathy of the BJP-ruled administration,” said Tuli Banerjee, the AAP’s Gujarat media coordinator. She added the manifesto addresses every citizen, who may ask what is in it for her.
Banerjee said this is the first time that AAP, which rules Delhi and is the second-biggest party in the Punjab assembly, is contesting elections at all levels in Gujarat. “Earlier, [there were] some coordination issue as well... it was decided to come to Gujarat later, though it was never out of the scheme of things.”
She said AAP leaders, including Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Atishi, have campaigned in Gujarat and will continue to come. Banerjee said AAP’s Delhi Model has inspired their idea of the guarantee card for the Ahmedabad local polls. Banerjee said the AAP government in Delhi has drastically improved the municipal schools and launched mohalla clinics. “...the party opened 10 mohalla clinics in Ahmedabad on a trial basis for two days. ...we will have these clinics in every ward...”
The AAP is preparing guarantee and report cards for Vadodara, Rajkot, Surat, Bhavnagar, and Jamnagar, where municipal polls are also going to be held.
