AAP to contest UP civic polls, targets Yogi government

Lucknow: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has decided to test the waters in Uttar Pradesh by contesting the upcoming municipal polls.

Senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh told reporters here on Friday that the AAP was determined to weed out corruption ion the civic bodies.

“People are already fed up with the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Yogi Adityanath and we intend to set things right by putting an end to corruption and exploitation of municipal workers”, he said.

Accusing the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “systematically looting the people” to cover up for their own economic disasters, the AAP leader said people had realised that work and development should be the guiding spirit of voting and not caste, creed or religion.

The AAP spokesman also targeted the BJP over the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh and said the message from the government was that any dissenting voice against it would be silenced.

Municipal elections to 16 urban civic bodies in the state are scheduled to be held in November this year.

The AAP leader further announced that if voted to power, his party would waive house tax and would ensure that people got clean drinking water. These and other issues would be part of party’s election manifesto.

Mr Sanjay Singh said that schools coming under the municipal corporations would be brought at par with private schools by enhancing their standards and the successful scheme of “c” in Delhi would be replicated in the state as well.

The AAP leader has set up a committee under party’s state spokesman Vaibhav Maheshwari to draft the manifesto. Training workshops for the 22 spokespersons of the state unit would also be held soon.