AAP to contest all 36 Mumbai seats in upcoming Maharashtra assembly polls

New Delhi [India], August 5 : The Aam Aadmi Party announced on Monday that it will contest the upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra. The party rank and file in Mumbai have already started extensive preparations for this.
"The Aam Aadmi Party will contest assembly elections all 36 seats in Mumbai. In the rest of Maharashtra, our colleagues and volunteers are galvanized and preparations are in full swing," AAP Mumbai President Preeti Sharma Menon said.
The Aam Aadmi Party is a national party. Under the visionary leadership of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, a party that emerged from a people's movement is today in power in Delhi and Punjab. We have MLAs in Goa and Gujarat and a significant number of MPs in Parliament, she said.
Menon said that in Just 10 short years, the Aam Aadmi Party has demonstrated the Delhi Model of development- where quality education, healthcare, water and electricity for all is provided free and that too without corruption and without debt. If Delhi and Punjab can deliver, it is due to Aam Aadmi Party's clean politics and new political culture.
The AAP leader hits out at CM Eknath Shinde's government over corruption and claimed that the state government is nothing but the organised loot of the state exchequer.
"The present BJP-Shinde Sena-led 'Khoke Sarkar' has zero political will for public welfare and is instead busy in wholesale corruption, as they are convinced that they aren't returning to power. The Eknath Shinde government is nothing but the organized loot of the state exchequer. Not only has the BJP-Shinde Sena committed a fraud on the constitution, it's failure on all fronts is a fraud on the people of Maharashtra," she claimed.
"Unemployment and inflation have broken the back of the Aam Aadmi. Agrarian distress and related farmer suicides continue unabated. Once the most industrialized state in India, Maharashtra is no longer the leader in terms of GDP. Taxpayer money is being used as bank guarantees for private cooperatives," she added.
Socially disadvantaged groups and marginalized sections of society are increasingly being subjected to violence and discrimination. The government is non-serious about the Maratha reservation and is trying to divide society, despite Jarange Patil's mass movement, Menon said.
Organized crime is spiralling out of control with anti-social elements acting with impunity and under political patronage, she added.
AAP leader Ruben Mascarenhas claimed that the builder and contractor mafia have taken over Mumbai adding that there is no public representation in any of the 27 municipal corporations of Maharashtra including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
"There is no public representation in any of the 27 municipal corporations of Maharashtra including the BMC in Mumbai. Mumbai's infrastructure is crumbling. Housing remains an unresolved issue. Slums are becoming increasingly unlivable. The builder and contractor mafia have taken over the city," he said.
"The BJP is an anti-Maharashtra and anti-Mumbai party. The BJP cannot stand Mumbai's pre-eminence as India's largest and most cosmopolitan city which is also the country's financial capital. Mumbai is the engine of India's economic growth. There is a deliberate attempt to kill Mumbai by the BJP, through an exodus of projects meant for Mumbai to Gujarat. Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis have ensured that Maharashtra's interest is subservient to Gujarat's," he added.
Mascarenhas said that AAP is not an alternative for the people of Maharashtra but a solution.
"Maharashtra is the land of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj- the epitome of good governance. It is the land of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and Mahatma Phule, champions of social justice for women and the downtrodden. It is the land of the saints, of social reform movements and of rich culture and progressive traditions," he said.
"Maharashtra and its people deserve better. The Aam Aadmi Party is not just the alternative but is the solution. The Aam Aadmi Party has emerged as the most efficient vehicle for social change. We will deliver Maharashtra from the present mess that it is in. We will prevail," Mascarenhas added.