With broom, AAP now eyes clean sweep at Delhi’s municipal corporation polls

While broom is the symbol of AAP, the party intends to keep the larger narrative of the civic polls around the ‘performance’ of BJP-ruled MCDs over the past decade, especially the ‘garbage-crisis’ that has hit the city over the past few years due to the strike by municipal staff.

“MCD Chunav Mein Jhadu Chalao, Delhi Se Gandagi Bhagao (Wield the broom in MCD elections, make Delhi garbage-free).

Municpal elections are likely to be held in the latter half of April. This will be AAP’s first full-fledged contest in Delhi’s three municipal corporations after making an impressive debut in municipal bypolls last year.(Arun Sharma/ HT photo)

The slogan defines the overarching theme on which the Aam Aadmi Party election campaign for the upcoming civic polls will be based on.

While broom is the symbol of AAP, the party intends to keep the larger narrative of the civic polls around the ‘performance’ of BJP-ruled MCDs over the past decade, especially the ‘garbage-crisis’ that has hit the city over the past few years due to the strike by municipal staff.

“The theme will be surrounding the issues related to the MCDs functioning. The municipal corporations under the BJP failed to carry out even its core function of providing sanitation and hygiene in the city. Even the Congress failed as an effective opposition in checking the misgovernance,” said senior AAP leader Ashish Talwar, in-charge of Delhi.

The opposition BJP and Congress have been targeting AAP on delivery of its electoral promises in the run up to the election campaign. However, AAP wants the narrative to stick to “operational and functional bankruptcy in the MCDs, which is largely due to rampant corruption in the civic bodies”.

Municpal elections are likely to be held in the latter half of April. This will be AAP’s first full-fledged contest in Delhi’s three municipal corporations after making an impressive debut in municipal bypolls last year. In the bypolls in 13 wards, AAP won five.

AAP has formed a screening committee to shortlist candidates for upcoming MCD polls. While party’s Delhi convenor Dilip Pandey, vice-presidents of the city unit and ministers Satyendar Jain and Kapil Mishra are part of the committee, party’s legislators will be overseeing the first round of screening in each ward before recommending names to the screening committee.

The final nod to the candidates will be given by the party’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC), the apex decision-making body of the party.

EX-BJP LEADER JOINS AAP

With the municipal elections drawing closer, some political workers have started switching sides. A former president of BJP Yuva Morcha, Shyam Singh, joined the Aam Aadmi Party on Friday in presence of Delhi convenor of AAP, Dilip Pandey.

A former independent candidate from Holambi Khurd municipal ward, Mamata, also joined the AAP. Pandey said while Singh, who teaches Physics in a local college, has been assisting the Narela MLA for a while now, Mamata decided to join AAP recently.

“She has a very strong presence in her ward. She lost the last election only by 173 votes to the Congress candidate amid a controversy. Initially, she was declared winner by eight votes. But after the Congress workers created ruckus, recounting was done and she lost by a thin margin. She has now decided to work with AAP,” Pandey said.