Now, AAP eyes Mumbai civic bodies

Launches Mission Mumbai ahead of February 2017 BMC elections

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has now set its sights on Mumbai.

Buoyed by the party’s victory in the Delhi Assembly elections, it has launched Mission Mumbai, to win the elections to the 227-member Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in February 2017.

BMC, one of the richest civic bodies in the country with an annual budget of Rs 33,700 crore, is ruled by the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance.

The AAP is eyeing the vote bank of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party. It will reach out to Mumbaikars on the plank of zero corruption.

The party will also gear up for elections to the civic bodies of Navi Mumbai, Vasai-Virar, Aurangabad, Kolhapur and Kalyan-Dombivli. Elections to these bodies are scheduled in the coming months.

AAP’s national executive member Mayank Gandhi said the party has set up separate committees for 36 Assembly constituencies in Mumbai and 227 wards of the BMC.

“AAP will focus on strengthening the party organisation and appeal to the voters for overwhelming support. The party will lay emphasis on participation of Mumbaikars for the resolution of issues faced by them,” Gandhi told Business Standard.

Further, AAP will launch the Swaraj Abhiyan to increase its presence in rural Maharashtra. “A separate committee will soon be formed to take up issues relating to farmer suicides and apathy towards agricultural labourers,” he said.

AAP members will gather at the iconic Gateway of India on February 14, when Arvind Kejriwal will take the oath of office at the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi, and take an oath to work hard to ensure the party’s victory in Maharashtra.