NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, JAN 3
Months ahead of the State Election Commission to announce the local bodies’ poll schedule, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday announced the first list of 504 candidates, including 31 percent seats for women and said it will contest all seats in Gujarat.
अहमदाबाद में @AAPGujarat की विशाल जनसभा को रोकने की पुलिस की लाख कोशिशों के बाद गुजरात के लोगों की आवाज़ गूंजी―भाजपा की गुंडागर्दी से काँग्रेस डरती होगी, @AamAadmiParty डरने वाली नहीं है।
आज घोषित किये गए उम्मीदवार @ArvindKejriwal के गवर्नेन्स मॉडल के वादे को घर घर ले जाएंगे। pic.twitter.com/HG8yMLKEH4
— Atishi (@AtishiAAP) January 3, 2021
The party also expressed confidence that it will emerge as a strong alternative to the ruling BJP in the state.
AAP’s Delhi MLA and party national spokesperson Atishi Singh released the first list of candidates for the elections to the local bodies in the state, such as municipalities, municipal corporations, district and taluka panchayats, likely to be held in February.
@AAPGujarat की पहेली लिस्ट में घोषित हुवे प्रत्याशी ओ को जगह जगह स्वागत हो रहा है। यह दर्शाता है कि गुजरात में @AamAadmiParty कुछ बड़ा हासिल करने जा रही है। @ArvindKejriwal @GulabMatiala @Gopal_Italia pic.twitter.com/EnFSw8svzu
— Manoj Sorathiya (@manoj_sorathiya) January 3, 2021
“AAP will contest elections on all seats in the local bodies polls in the state for the first time. With this, the party will enter the electoral politics of Gujarat as a strong alternative to the BJP. AAP will work to remove the BJP from power,” she said.
“Not just the local bodies polls, but AAP will also contest the Vidhan Sabha elections in Gujarat as well as other polls. People of Gujarat want an alternative,” she said.
રાજકોટ જિલ્લા માઁ કાળીપાટ ગામ ખાતે આજે ગામ ના લોકો આપ માઁ જોડાયા.. પ્રદેશ સહ સંગઠન મંત્રી નૈમિષ પાટડીયા તથા રાજકોટ જિલ્લા ઉપપ્રમુખ જતીન ધામેલીયા એ તંમામ ને આવકાર્ય અને તાલૂકા પંચાયત માટે ગામ નાજ લોકોએ ઉમેદવાર નક્કી કરીને નામ આપ્યું….#Rajkot#Gujarat pic.twitter.com/FP7bCwB8my
— AAP Gujarat (@AAPGujarat) January 3, 2021
She claimed that it is on the demand of the people of Gujarat that AAP is entering the electoral politics in the state.
Atishi accused the BJP of playing the politics of intimidation and allurement.
Immediately after announcing the list, the party started taking out a rally as it had already obtained the police permission for the same. Despite this, police resorted to highhandedness and tried to thwart the rally being taken out.
AAP State president Gopal Italiya alleged that party workers were lathicharged by the police without any provocation. As the party workers were firm on taking out the rally the police later allowed it.
“If there is a leader in the country who is not scared of the BJP, it is Arvind Kejriwal. And if there is one party that the BJP cannot scare or allure, then it is AAP… We, the soldiers of Arvind Kejriwal, will continue our fight for truth,” she said.
The list is being announced weeks in advance as the candidates need to conduct door-to-door campaign, she added
The AAP leader said the party has also opened an email address for the people to register their complaints, if they have any, against the candidates.
“We talked about 3Cs – corruption, criminality, and character. If any candidate is found wanting in any of these three, then the AAP will change the candidate. We will leave the seat empty, but not let a corrupt person contest the election as our candidate,” she asserted.
AAP’s newly-elected Gujarat unit chief Gopal Italia said from the first list of 504 candidates, 31 percent were women.
“This is our first list, and we will announce the second list soon. We will contest the polls on all the seats. Our issues are related to education, health, and corruption. We want corruption to end completely in Gujarat,” he said.
Elections to six municipal corporations, including Ahmedabad, 55 municipalities, 31 district panchayats, and 231 taluka panchayats were supposed to be held in November 2019, a month before their five-year terms came to end, but were postponed by three months in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
