CHANDIGARH: Enthused by its landslide victory in the recent assembly elections in Punjab, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is eyeing the civic elections scheduled for later this year and making a blueprint for it, as Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann held a meeting with party in-charge of Punjab affairs Jarnail Singh here on Friday.
The four largest municipal corporations of the state (Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, and Patiala) will go to the polls in December this year. In the recent assembly polls out of the 14 assembly segments which fall under Ludhiana Municipal Corporation 13 MLAs of AAP won, also nine AAP MLAs won out of 11 assembly seats that fall under Amritsar Municipal Corporation, while all eight assembly seats that fall in the area of Patiala Municipal Corporation were won by AAP. In Jalandhar Municipal Corporation, the party won four out of nine assembly seats.
Just before the assembly elections, former Patiala Mayor Ajitpal Singh Kohli joined AAP and he defeated former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh from Patiala (Urban) seat. Also, the sitting mayor of Amritsar Karamjit Singh Rintu too joined AAP before the assembly polls.
Sources said that in the meeting today between Mann and Singh, the strategy to be adopted by the party was discussed to fight these civil elections besides the party structure at the ward level and how to strengthen it. Not only that also the urban development plan of these civic bodies is likely to be announced by the new AAP Government in the state before these elections. As a blueprint is being prepared by the party to implement the development agendas in the urban areas as promised by it.
The party has assigned this task to Jarnail Singh as he had been instrumental in the impressive performance of the party in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation elections as the party won 14 wards and was the largest party in the house.
Jarnail Singh said that the Aam Aadmi Party will sweep the municipal elections like in the recent assembly elections and will form its mayors in all the four municipal corporations.
A few days ago, Jarnail Singh along with state general secretary Harchand Singh Barsat held a meeting with AAP district presidents, Lok Sabha in-charges, district secretaries, and other office-bearers and discussed the strategies for the municipal elections.