AAP setting agenda for Karnataka assembly polls

Bengaluru: Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi on Tuesday said her party is setting the agenda for the upcoming Karnataka assembly election with BJP promising 'Namma Clinic' on the lines of Delhi's Mohalla Clinics and 200 units of free electricity as has been implemented in the national capital.

The party will fight in all the 224 assembly constituencies across the state in the election, which is less than three months away, and the list of candidates would be announced in the first week of March, the AAP leader said at a press conference here.

The party leader said people do not want a "copycat version of the Delhi model of governance and want the original". Hence, the party has decided to fight the election in Karnataka with all its vigour.

She said the BJP and the Congress are "poor copycats in implementing schemes".

While the saffron party has been in power for the past three-and-half years, it is only at the brink of assembly polls that it is promising to implement the 'Namma Clinics' based on the Mohalla Clinic model of Delhi, she claimed.

"If you (BJP) were serious about providing high-quality healthcare, why has it not been done all these years? It goes to show that a copycat is only a copycat," Atishi charged.

She wondered why the BJP made a promise of 24,000 classes under the 'Viveka' scheme in Karnataka at the end of its tenure. "My question is why they were not built in the last five years. You (BJP) have been in power, you had the budget and yet you have not built them," Atishi sought to know.

The AAP leader said the Congress is promising 200 units of free electricity if voted to power, which is similar to AAP's scheme, which has already been implemented in Delhi.

She challenged the Congress that the people of Karnataka will believe the party's promise of free electricity if it gives free electricity in the states where it is in power such as Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh before the date of Karnataka assembly election.

Regarding the Janata Dal (Secular), she said the party is now talking about high-quality education.

"You can see that the entire election agenda of the Karnataka state assembly election has been set by the AAP because people want change as they are tired of corruption," said the AAP MLA, representing Kalkaji in Delhi.

"The AAP has shown that they can bring high-quality education, high-quality healthcare, and they can give 200 units of free electricity to the people and that is the reason people are gravitating towards our party," Atishi pointed out.

The party will contest all the 224 seats and there was a tremendous response on the ground, the AAP leader said. "I urge the people of Karnataka to choose an honest party, which has delivered its promises," she said.