Karnataka polls: AAP’s bicycle rally pedals for ‘honest alternative political system’ in Bengaluru

Leaders and members of the AAP took out a bicycle rally in Bengaluru on Sunday.

Bengaluru, March 27: Days after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced its first list of 18 candidates for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections, leaders and members of the party took out a bicycle rally in Bengaluru on Sunday. The bicycle rally was hosted to campaign for Shantinagar assembly constituency candidate of the party, Renuka Vishwanathan, a retired IAS officer. Around 150 cyclists took part in the rally which pedalled its way through various thoroughfares of the IT hub. The rally began at Shantinagar, and bikers covered areas including Nanjappa Circle, MG Road, Kadugodi, Old Madras Road, Dommaluru and Indiranagar in the city, before coming back to their starting point at Shantinagar.

AAP Karnataka convener Prithvi Reddy, who flagged off the bicycle rally, said that people were fed up with the maladministration and opportunism of the three major political parties--the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S))--in Karnataka.

"People are hoping for a real alternative. Youth and women joining the AAP in a large number itself prove their dissatisfaction with the ruling party, Congress, in Karnataka. The AAP promises to be the voice of the people and usher in an honest alternative political system in the state," added Reddy, who is also contesting elections from Bengaluru's Sarvagnanagar constituency.

A group of AAP's NRI volunteers from New Zealand and the United States (US) took part in the rally. "We are here to support the AAP. Karnataka needs better leaders to take the state forward. We want an honest party like the AAP to lead the state towards growth and development," said one of the NRI participants at the rally.

The elections to the 224-member Karnataka Assembly are likely to take place between the last week of April and the first week of May. In the coming days, the AAP is likely to announce a few more candidates for the elections. AAP members said campaigning is taking place in full swing across the state. Mostly, the AAP candidates are relying on door-to-door campaigning, said a leader of the party, which is fighting its first Assembly elections in Karnataka.

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