AAP begins spade work for UP civic polls

Lucknow, May 6 (IANS) Undeterred by the humiliating drubbing at the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the recent Delhi municipal elections, the AAP on Saturday began the spade work for the forthcoming civic polls in Uttar Pradesh.

Aam Aadmi Party national spokesman and Uttar Pradesh in-charge Sanjay Singh held a meeting of district coordinators of Poorvanchal, Avadh and Ruhelkhand regions wherein discussions were held on the municipal polls and the preparedness of the party organisation for contesting them.

The selection process of candidates has begun and people interested in being fielded as AAP candidates can submit their bio-data and an affidavit declaring no criminal or graft charges against them to the party office.

It was also decided that instead of contesting polls in all districts and nagar panchayats, the party would concentrate on the 14 municipal corporations in a big way.

"As of now we are assessing our strength, the footprint of our organisation and will take a decision on where all to contest," Vaibhav Maheshwari, state spokesman of the party, told IANS.

He said the party had immense goodwill among people on civic issues as they believed that the AAP could deliver on such issues much better than other parties who promise the moon and then deliver nothing on the ground.

The AAP has also decided to make water tax, house tax, anomalies in various orders of the municipal corporations and rampant corruption issues in the municipal polls.

The polls are likely to be held in the next two months. The BJP controls most major corporations such as Agra, Kanpur, Lucknow and Varanasi.