GUWAHATI: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidates in the Assam municipal election have been asked to sign “loyalty affidavits”.
AAP’s Assam state committee, in a news conference here on Monday, said considering that big national parties are allegedly tempting candidates, they have decided to replicate the Goa assembly election model, where AAP candidates have signed affidavits promising to remain loyal to the party.
AAP will field candidates in all 80 municipal boards, for which election will be held on March 6, and it has already accepted applications of over 150 candidates from across lower, central and upper Assam. “We don’t want any of our elected ward members to desert the party after the election because the party always has a big role in any win. So, it has been decided that our candidates will sign loyalty affidavits, which will legally bind them to the party,” said Bhaben Choudhury, state coordinator of AAP.
Party media coordinator for Assam, Jayanta Kumar Kalita, said their major threat is from the Congress and BJP, which he said may try to tempt AAP candidates to join their camp because of their clean image. AAP will sign a legal agreement with the candidates to make them commit that they will not hoodwink the party or the voters. If the do, legal action will be taken against them,” said Kalita.
Candidates are being screened by AAP’s observer team, which has rejected applications of some aspirants who have knocked on the doors of AAP after failing to get tickets from other parties or have criminal records. Ticket aspirants from Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Golaghat, Mariani, Nagaon, Sivasagar, Amguri, Rangiya, Goalpara, Lakhimpur and Dhubri have queued up for tickets at AAP offices. The final list is likely to be published in the next 24 hours.
“We are confident that our 150-odd candidates, who will be fielded from an equal number of wards, have a clean image to help AAP take forward it’s mission on education, health and development,” Kalita added. Polls to 977 municipal wards will be held in March.
