NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday, October 24, 2021, announced to launch a massive campaign after Diwali in a bid to oust the BJP from the three municipal corporations in next year’s civil polls. “People want a change this time as the BJP-ruled municipal corporations have completely failed in fulfilling their responsibility,” AAP leader and Delhi’s Environment Minister Gopal Rai said at a press conference.
The BJP has been ruling all three municipal corporations for three consecutive terms. Rai alleged that Delhiites had no respite from dirt and garbage because of the inefficiency of the BJP-ruled corporations, which had also failed to take timely steps to prevent the spread of dengue this year.
Rai claimed that people expressed their dissatisfaction with the performance of the MCDs during the 2,532 ‘mohalla sabhas’ organised by the AAP under its Aapka MLA Aapke Dwar programme from September 1 to October 20. There was not a single mohalla sabha where people did not raise the issue of dirt and garbage, he added.
The AAP would also start a huge exercise to strengthen its organisational structure in the run-up to the MCD elections, the minister said. The party is preparing its plan of action for the civic body polls based on the report of mohalla sabhas, he added. “It seems the BJP’s farewell from the MCDs will be before the deadline it has set for complete removal of the garbage mountain at Delhi border,” Rai said.
Reacting to his comments, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said, “Residents of Delhi are fed up with the allegation politics of AAP leaders.” People had seen how the Arvind Kejriwal government had failed them during the Covid-19 pandemic, while the BJP-led Centre not only provided medical aid but also ensured free vaccination. In 2022, people will again vote for the BJP, Kapoor said.
On the AAP’s plan to strengthen its organisation structure, Kapoor said that the AAP “is just a bunch of manipulators who have won two (assembly) elections by misleading people with freebies”.