UDF, LDF Joining Hands to Defeat AAP: Sarah Joseph

THRISSUR: The first ever election win by an AAP candidate in South India, has come as a motivation for the Kerala Unit of the party to fight the civic body polls in the state which is scheduled to be held in September this year, state convenor of the party Sarah Joseph has said. At the by-election held at Cherthala South ward in Alappuzha, Tomy Elassery, who had joined AAP from CPI, won by a wafer-thin margin of three votes.

Sarah, who visited Cherthala after the elections results came out on Wednesday, to congratulate Tomy said the voting pattern in the ward gave enough clues that both the UDF and the LDF had joined hands to defeat AAP. In a ward which was won by the CPI last time Congress came second with 305 votes and the CPI got only 64, she noted.

She further said that as a part of the Mission Vistaar programme, the AAP has now formed functionaries at state, district and Assembly constituencies.

“At present, we have a party system in 85 per cent of the panchayats in the state. By the end of October, we will be having at least 10 volunteers in every ward and two active volunteers in all the booths. The elections will be held to the party posts starting from the ward-level to the state as a part of Mission Vistaar by October,” she said.

As of now, the party has active workers in Thrissur, where the party state head office is located. Besides that AAP is active in Ernakulam, Kozhikode and Alappuzha districts, she said.

“In all those wards we have enough volunteers, we are planning to contest in the civic polls scheduled to be held in September. Besides that, the party would also be participating in the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) which will also be held this year,” she added.

It is learnt that after the split in the AAP leading to the ouster of Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, the state unit had been telling its volunteers that the issues raised by the duo over the transparency of party funds and decision making was relevant, but the way and the timing of the ousted leaders in raising the matter were detrimental to the party.

Party state unit has also assured its volunteers that all matters of the state unit would be dealt with in a transparent manner.