By IANS,
New Delhi : The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), India’s newest political outfit, was Monday formally launched here by activist Arvind Kejriwal in the presence of hundreds of supporters.
“This party is result of our struggle against corruption,” said Kejriwal, who had announced the name of his party Saturday.
Kejriwal also formally released the party’s constitution, a key feature of which disallows the relative of a party member in the state executive or national executive councils from getting a place there.
He announced an internal Lokpal also for his party. Former Jharkhand High Court justice Bhagwati Prasad and former navy chief Admiral (retd.) L. Ramdas will perform this role.
In his address on the occasion, Kejriwal demanded formation of fast track courts, an independent Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and corruption-free government agencies.
“We will bring the Janlokpal bill in 15 days and a corruption-free India within six months,” Kejriwal promised.
He attacked the government’s economic policies.
“Inflation has not gone upward by itself. The government is imposing taxes which leads to increase in the prices of diesel and petrol,” he said.
Kejriwal’s colleague Manish Sisodia, who declared the name of the party to the gathering at Parliament Street near Jantar Mantar in central Delhi, said: “It is our party.”
Sisodia also announced the names of 23 other members of the party’s national executive. These include Sisodia himself as well as Prashant Bhushan, Dinesh Waghela, Sanjay Singh, Gopa Rai and Kumar Vishwas.
Kejriwal will be the national convenor, Pankaj Gupta the national secretary, and Krishna Kanth the national treasurer of the AAP, a party member told IANS, adding that the names were decided Sunday at the national executive meet.
Kumar Vishwas announced the name of official website: aamaadmiparty.org, and social networking accounts on Facebook (aamaadmiparty) and Twitter @aamaadmiparty to share the information about the party.
“The other political parties are thinking about our survival, but we are getting a huge response from across the nation,” he claimed.
“As many as 200 offices have been opened for functioning of the party, just today (Monday) and about money, it’s a Aam Aadmi Party… they (the aam aadmi) will run it,” Vishwas said.
“The donations are coming to our party account and people are giving cheques, so they (other parties) need not to worry,” he said.
“We are getting donations for the party from across India,” he said.
As much as Rs.1.63 lakh was collected by the volunteers in the form of donations to the party, 15,000 people took registration forms and the party received 300 applications for providing spaces for the party offices, a party statement claimed.
Earlier in the day, Kejriwal and his colleagues visited Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial Raj Ghat. He also paid tributes to B.R. Ambedkar. Kejriwal chose to launch his party Nov 26 as the constitution of India was adopted on this day in 1949.