BJP takes cue from AAP, mulls constituency-specific manifestos now

The Delhi BJP has kept open the option of coming out with constituency manifestos – an experiment successfully tried out by the Aam Aadmi Party in the last Assembly elections.

The saffron party took a step towards preparing seat-specific manifestos for the coming Assembly elections by asking its former legislators, councillors and office bearers to give suggestions on e-mail for possible seat-specific poll promises.

General Secretary Rekha Gupta has been interacting with party leaders on the prominent issues which features regularisation of unauthorised colonies, return of e-rickshaws on roads and giving relief to consumers in water and power bills.

“It was an informal interaction to gauge the area specific demands of local leaders,” said a former legislators who attended one such session on Monday.

Some councillors also wanted the party leadership to stall the proposed hike in municipal taxes in the budgets of the three civic agencies ruled by the saffron party.

Sources said the BJP is toying with the idea of releasing constituency manifestos in all 70 seats – an experiment tried out in some seats during the last elections.

“In some constituencies like Model Town the party had released constituency-specific manifesto during the last elections. This experiment will be extended to other constituencies this time,” said a BJP leader.

Revamping agencies
Delhi BJP Chief Satish Upadhyay said the party is also likely to prepare a blueprint for revamping a number of government agencies.

Upadhyay said the party’s manifesto will also talk about  benchmarking of hospitals and schools under the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards, said Upadhyay.

In an effort to get more raw Yamuna water from Haryana for Delhi, the Delhi unit of the BJP has also decided to accord a civic reception to party leader and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on November 29.