AAP has launched an all-out campaign against the BJP
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today appealed to residents of the national capital to elect an honest and performing administration in the civic polls today.
"Today's election is to make Delhi clean and beautiful, to make the civic administration corruption free. I appeal to all Delhi residents to case their vote today to elect an administration that is honest and performs," the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader tweeted in Hindi, minutes before polling began.
The Chief Minister asked the people to vote for a honest party and for decent people.
"Do not vote for the corrupt, goons and those using slangs. Do not vote for those turning Delhi into garbage. Vote for those who will make Delhi shine, keep it clean. Vote for those who work, not for those who block work," he said in another tweet.
AAP has launched an all-out campaign against the BJP in the first civic polls after three civic bodies of the national capital were merged into one through the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2022.
Over 1.45 crore voters are eligible to cast their votes to elect councillors to 250 wards.
Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who is the face of the party's civic poll campaign, appealed to the voters to cast their votes for a clean and garbage-free city.
Speaking to NDTV, Mr Sisodia said this vote will set the tone for proper maintenance of the national capital. Appealing to residents to step out and cast their votes, the Deputy Chief Minister said, "The weather is nice. I would appeal to people to queue up and cast their votes. Facing this minor inconvenience is better than waking up to heaps of garbage every morning."
Garbage has emerged as a key issue in this election, with Chief Minister Kejriwal making visits to mountains of garbage that dot the national capital.
AAP has launched an all-out campaign to wrest the control of the civic body from the BJP, which has maintained its hold on the municipal administration despite being reduced to single digits in the Assembly.
The AAP's slogan "Kejriwal's government, Kejriwal's corporator" rivals the BJP's similar pitch of "Modi's double engine" - both building on their top leaders' faces.
The Congress, still struggling to recover its ground in Delhi ever since AAP's emergence, has put up candidates on 247 seats.
To counter AAP's campaign, the BJP has deployed top Union Ministers led by Amit Shah for rallies in the national capital. The party has targeted AAP on corruption charges against several AAP ministers, including Mr Sisodia. The Congress, too, has used these to take digs at AAP.