Boosted by Delhi sweep, AAP gears for Bengaluru civic polls

The Aam Aadmi Party's sweeping victory in the Delhi assembly elections has encouraged the Arvind Kejriwal-led party in its campaign for the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) municipal elections in the far-off Karnataka capital of Bengaluru, where it has had little or no presence so far.

The AAP has picked a few wards on a pilot basis and taken up local issues there to make them ''models'', according to Shantala Damle, the party's spokesperson. The AAP is already in the process of drafting a ''strong vision document'' for Bengaluru through ''participatory democracy'', he said.

'Bombat Bengaluru' is AAP Karnataka's programme to crowdsource a vision plan for the city. It is designed to be a citywide participatory process, where the vision for the city is developed by the citizens on the streets of Bengaluru. The programme is structured around autonomous, subject-specific groups identifying issues, exploring solutions, analysing feasibility and proposing a plan, said Damle.

''The party stood by the people of Mandur during their struggle during the garbage crisis. We started Swachata Abhiyan even before Prime Minister Modi announced Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. The party played a pivotal role in H S Doreswamy's 100-day campaign against land-grabbing in Bengaluru. Party workers are helping residents in some parts of Bengaluru to get their rights under the Right to Education,'' she said.

Damle said the activists who had returned to their jobs after the Lok Sabha elections (where the AAP fared miserably) will now regroup and start working again on the Bengaluru agenda.