With an aim to remove the BJP from power in the municipal corporations, the AAP on Saturday launched the ‘MCD Badlaav Campaign’. Election to the three municipal corporations is to be held by April next year.
Delhi AAP chief and Minister Gopal Rai said that under the campaign, the party will launch a door-to-door membership drive from Sunday and will cover each and every household in Delhi. The party’s target is to induct 50 lakh members in the next three months.
“If we want Delhi to shine, and if we want it to be more beautiful and healthier, cleanliness is of utmost importance. Which is why we are launching this MCD Badlaav Campaign. As part of this campaign, we have to go to every street, lane, booth, ward, mandal and Assembly. We have to go to every corner in Delhi and let people know that just the way they chose Arvind Kejriwal to eradicate corruption from the Delhi Government, the time has now come for the municipal corporations,” Mr. Rai said, addressing workers at the party headquarters.
Contrasting fate
In the 2017 municipal corporation election, the AAP fared poorly and lost all three corporations to the BJP. This is despite winning 67 out of 70 seats in the 2015 Delhi Assembly election.
Referring to this, Mr. Rai said, “The last time we contested the corporation elections, we were contesting for the very first time. We had no experience and we were only learning.”
He said the Delhi Government can give free water, free electricity, or install CCTVs, but when people step out onto the streets, they see garbage strewn across the streets. Waste management of the city falls under the ambit of the civic bodies.
“We have to take this responsibility to make Delhi a better city. We have to take the lead in this fight for change. We have three months left — December, January and February — because the elections are in March. Which is why, starting tomorrow [Sunday], we will set up day-long membership camps at every booth and mandal. At this camp, we will do our campaigning and people can come to join the party. For the next two days, at the same booths, our teams will go door-to-door to make people pledge for change in the municipal corporations, make them members of the party and shareholders in this great campaign of change,” Mr. Rai said.
Movement, not party
Senior AAP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that AAP is not a party, but it is a movement: a movement for education reform, for women’s rights and safety, for health reforms, to reduce inflation.
“We have to work to realise our dream to change the country, and to achieve the goal of voting the BJP out of power in order to do that. We have to transform Delhi into a clean capital. Every AAP member must have the drive to make these dreams come true, to make Delhi shine, and for that, first throw the corrupt, havoc-wreaking BJP out of the corporation,” he said.
