BMC polls: AAP to contest all 227 wards independently, announces its first list

The Aam Aadmi Party AAP on Friday announced that it will contest the upcoming BMC Elections 2026 independently fielding candidates in all 227 wards and ruling out any alliance with other political parties party leaders saidThe party said that the decision marks its formal entry into Mumbairsquos civic politics and aims to provide an alternative to what it described as decades of misgovernance by established partiesAddressing the media Preeti Sharma Menon AAP Mumbai chief said that despite Mumbairsquos status as Indiarsquos Urbs Prima civic governance had deteriorated sharplyldquoThe BMC has an annual budget of Rs 74447 crore the largest in Asia Mumbaikars pay the highest taxes in the country yet receive poorquality public servicesrdquo she saidBMC has become plagued by corruptionMenon alleged that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC has become plagued by corruption and inefficiencyShe pointed to the closure of BMCrun schools declining educational standards lack of functional primary healthcare centres overburdened public hospitals and the steady decline of BESTrsquos bus fleetShe also highlighted issues such as poor garbage management shrinking green cover rising pollution levels and the discharge of untreated sewage into the seaDharavi redevelopment projectCriticising the Dharavi redevelopment project Menon claimed it represented ldquothe biggest land grab in independent Indiarsquos historyrdquo She further noted that the BMC had functioned without elected representatives for the past four years and alleged that the civic bodyrsquos fixed deposits had fallen significantly during this period ldquoThis is avoidable suffering inflicted on Mumbaikars by a selfserving political class Every party has looted Mumbairdquo she saidParty prepared to offer a governancefocused alternative SinghAAP MP Sanjay Singh said the party was prepared to offer a governancefocused alternative citing its record in Delhi and Punjab under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann ldquoAAP has delivered quality education healthcare electricity and water without corruption and without debt Mumbai needs the same modelrdquo he saidSingh added that even a small presence in the BMC would ensure meaningful participation ldquoWith just seven corporators AAP will have a house leader and representation on all statutory committees including Standing Improvement Health Education and BESTrdquo he saidReferring to AAPrsquos past performance Singh recalled that the party secured a 516 per cent vote share and over 273 lakh votes in Mumbai during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections ldquoWe are confident of improving on that performance Mumbai needs AAP and we will contest all 227 seats on our own strengthrdquo he saidAAPs first listAAP also released a list of 21 candidates who will be contesting the elections According to the party the first list includes candidates from wards numbered 3 23 29 31 40 43 48 53 54 83 90 134 146 148 151 190 206 211 221 225 and 227List of candidatesWard 3 Rajendra Rajan Ramadhar MishraWard 23 Tilak Kumar ChoudhariWard 29 Rajbali Rambaran SahaniWard 31 Poonam Ashish DasWard 40 Jilajeet Ramshabad YadavWard 43 Irfan Nawab KhanWard 48 Larzy VargheesWard 53 Ravindra DodiyeWard 54 Mahendra Bhosle MalusareWard 83 Preeti Sunder PadhmukhWard 90 Suresh Keshav AcharyaWard 134 Nasreen Sajid KhanWard 146 Bahusaheb Rangnath VartheWard 148 Neeta Kiran SukhtankarWard 151 Jyoti Vijay KshirsagarWard 190 Pranali Girish RautWard 206 Ashok Ramdular UpadhyayWard 211 Mohd Aslam Muneer MerchantWard 221 Zunaid Jamil KhanWard 225 Deepaq Rajan SilanWard 227 Maraaret Hermit DacostaAfter a delay of almost three years exactly 34 months elections to the BMC will finally be held on January 15 2026 with counting on January 16 The previous fiveyear term ended in February 2022