AAP decides to stay away from civic poll, expects another election

BENGALURU: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has decided to stay away from the BBMP election in view of the “confusion" surrounding the municipal polls scheduled for August 22 and instead try its luck at the next round of civic elections.
AAP political affairs committee member Pankaj Gupta confirmed the party's decision to ET and explained that the party felt the current round of elections were meant only to satisfy court orders. “We firmly believe that the elections will happen again very soon because the state government is firm about splitting the Bengaluru's civic body into multiple smaller ones," said Gupta, a former software engineer from the US and a close associate of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Gupta, who is in charge of AAP's Karnataka affairs clarified that the party will keep working with Bengalurueans. “We still have to do a lot of connecting with people in connecting with people in Bengaluru. We will contest the next round of BBMP elections," he said. However, according to AAP sources, Kejriwal is not keen on the party contesting the civic polls in Bengaluru as he wants the AAP to win a majority of seats if it were to contest. The leaders have also found that the party is not ready enough with good candidates, volunteers and money to fight the civic polls.

The party was bullish about turning in a good show in Bengaluru after its spectacular win in Delhi state polls in February and its leaders had started preparing the ground by planning a series of street corner meetings. But the party has dropped the idea of contesting the polls disappointing several grassroots workers.

AAP's popular face V Balakrishnan said the party has decided not to go to polls for the time being because “Bengaluru is jinxed, and the civic governance system is broken."

According to him, holding elections to BBMP with the civic body in its current form is not what Bengalureans deserved. “We don't want to go to polls in the current atmosphere of confusion,“ he said.

Political analyst Sandeep Shastri felt AAP had lost a good chance to win the confidence of the urban voter as mainstream political parties were disinterested in the elections. “The AAP has not really made an effort to penetrate into the city in the past one year. Post-Delhi polls, the infighting in Delhi has caused a serious dent in the party's image. The party must have realised it is difficult now to go to voters in Bengaluru," he said.