‘Swaraj India’ – Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan’s political outfit to fight for BMC Polls 2017

The run up to the BMC Elections 2017 got another interesting element added to it with Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan’s newly floated political outfit, ‘Swaraj India’ set to fight atleast 50 seats in the upcoming Mumbai Civic Body Elections 2017. The propaganda of Swaraj India will be transparency and to promote it, the party plans to field candidates who will be selected by the public within each ward through a primaries-like open polling.

 

The party plans to contest from wards in Antop Hill, Sion, Worli, Wadala in the southern and central Mumbai alongwith Goregaon, Malad and Dindoshi in the western suburbs.

 

Apart from Mumbai, the party plans to contest civic elections from Thane and Pimpri-Chinchwad as well.

 

Secretary Sanjeev Sane said the party had decided it would bring on four types of people as candidates who would be selected through an open polling conducted by the people of the ward concerned. “We want to encourage professionals like doctors and advocates as well as entrepreneurs and activists, who have worked with the people in particular localities, to contest the elections. We will also encourage women who have selflessly worked in their localities,” the Secretary added.

 

Sane added that all interesting candidates can apply and a thorough screening of the candidates will take place on grounds of their background, criminal record etc and it will be presented to the public before the open polling was conducted. “We will not give a ticket to communal, corrupt people with criminal histories. For influential candidates, we will conduct a closed poll to ensure that the right candidate represents the ward. The aim is to support people who have worked hard in a particular area and give them a chance to take part in the elections,” he said. The party will start inviting applications in November.