BBMP Election: After win Delhi election, AAP sets eye on BBMP poll,BBMP Election,AAP eye on BBMP polls

BBMP Election: After win Delhi election, AAP sets eye on BBMP poll

Bengaluru: From Delhi to Bengaluru. Having conquered the capital, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has cast its eye on Bengaluru.

BBMP elections are due in April, and though there's speculation the Congress government might postpone polls citing bifurcation of the civic body, the Karnataka unit of AAP is gearing up for a contest. "There are a lot of similarities between Delhi and Bengaluru. It's been rendered an orphan city by the BJP and Congress, and people need an alternative. AAP is visible in Bengaluru and my party will contest all the seats,'' AAP's V Balakrishnan, who contested from Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat in 2014, said.

From providing logistical support in the 2013 Delhi assembly polls to now, the Karnataka unit is aware the capital's bulldozing mandate cannot be replicated everywhere and in every election. "It cannot be a copy-paste job without any hard work, which Team Delhi put in. The results are a celebration of democracy -evolving from Raja to Praja -- where it's the will of the people," AAP's national executive member Prithvi Reddy said.

The party had kept a low profile after the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, when its candidates in all 28 constituencies had lost their deposits. The AAP vote-share was 0.08% -- equivalent to the NOTA (none of the above) share. Reddy attributes the party's drubbing in Karnataka to a lack of wherewithal. "We grew at a speed we couldn't manage,'' he added.

Since then, AAP has confined itself to taking up civic and civil issues -- from garbage clearance to filing RTIs to protests against ruling party MLAs taking law into their hands. Routing the Congress and BJP in New Delhi seems to have given a new confidence to AAP which now sees itself as "an alternative and not a substitute'' to traditional political outfits.

"AAP will not be built by membership. The attempt is to do so booth-wise by solving local problems,'' Reddy, who also heads the party's Mission Vistara (expansion) said.

POLL TALK
The Delhi poll results are on expected lines. The results have proved there's no Modi wave. BJP was made to bite the dust despite having a government at the Centre. The results will not have any bearing on Congress plans to strengthen the party.
Siddaramaiah | chief minister
We have to introspect. But the outcome has nothing to do with the popularity of PM Narendra Modi. Though the number of seats has reduced, the vote-share has remained intact, compared to the last elections. The Congress has been completely washed out.
Jagadish Shettar | opposition leader, Karnataka legislative assembly
The Delhi election results signals a stark failure of the BJP's strategy. But I don't think making Kiran Bedi CM candidate at the eleventh hour was the only reason for the party's defeat. If that was the case, AAP wouldn't have had a landslide victory. The margin of victory clearly reflects there were multiple reasons for the BJP's defeat.
CT Ravi | BJP MLA

 src:timesofindia

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