After several failed attempts and dissidence within the women members of the party, the Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday launched its women’s wing called AAPki Mahila Shakti (Your Women’s Power). The announcement was made by the party convener and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at Ramlila Maidan, Sundar Nagri on the death anniversary of its popular volunteer Santosh Koli who died in an accident on August 7 last year.
The Delhi unit of Aap Ki Mahila Shakti will be headed by the Shalimar Bagh MlA, Bandana Kumari. It has been decided to set up the units in all districts of Delhi and will be followed by a committee in all the 70 Assembly segments of the national Capital. A helpline number will soon be made public to help women in directly contacting the party. The decision to form a women’s wing was taken last year as well but could not take off completely due to other work.
Kumari said that a women’s wing was needed to strengthen the organisational structure ahead of the possibility of fresh elections in the national Capital. Kumari further added that the focus of the wing will be to go to every household. Soon, teams at Assembly, ward, polling station and polling booth level will be announced.
There are three women MlAs in the 70-members Delhi Assembly. All of the three belong to the AAP. One of them Rakhi Birla, an MlA from Mangolpuri was also a Minister in the AAP Government. The other two are Bandana and Beena Anand, MlA from Patel Nagar.