'Give Arvind Kejriwal a chance': AAP's appeal to Guwahati before GMC polls

“Give Arvind Kejriwal a chance,” Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Atishi Marlena appealed to voters in Guwahati as the party tries its luck in the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) elections slated on Friday.

“People here elected Congress for a long time, BJP is in power for the past six years. But they have done nothing to improve amenities. Please give us a chance so that we can provide piped drinking water to every household free of cost, improve the condition of schools and hospitals like we have done in Delhi,” Atishi said on the last day of campaigning on Wednesday.

AAP has fielded candidates in 39 out of 60 wards in Guwahati, where BJP is in power, both in the GMC and in the state.

AAP said providing drinking water to every household is their main promise as people in Guwahati have been grappling with crisis of drinking water even as the Brahmaputra flows along the city.

“Congress failed to implement the drinking water projects and BJP has also failed to fulfil the promise in the past six years in power,” she said. “There are buildings in the name of medical colleges but there is a shortage of doctors and infrastructure. In Delhi, and now in the last one month in Punjab, we have proved that we work for the people. We will provide same kind of amenities to the residents in Guwahati, if they give us a chance,” Atishi said.

Both Congress and BJP are also promising piped drinking water to every household but the work on the water supply projects in the city has remained incomplete for more than a decade now. Before the Lok Sabha polls in 2014, 2019 and before Assembly elections in 2016 and 2021, BJP had promised to finish the work but the same has not yet been done.

Only 30 per cent residents in Guwahati at present have access to piped drinking water.

Land documents to the landless people, sanitation, lights are some of the other major issues in this elections in GMC.

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