NASHIK: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced its new office bearers for the district on Thursday, claiming the party would not indulge in seat-sharing but would lend only external support.

The party's north Maharashtra coordinator and state committee member, Sanjeev Sane, was in the city, along with state committee members, including Vijay Pandhare, Subhash Tanvar and Rahul Bharati, when he informed about the new members of the party and also about the party's policies with respect to elections.

"We will contest all the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra during the elections and we are discussing the same with like-minded parties. However, we are likely to give only external support rather than sharing seats with any party," Sane said. He further said the party has, till now, received applications for 100 seats and is approaching people for 300 seats. "At present, we don't have any alliance with any party. We don't have any separate cells in our party like the women's cell, youth wing, etc," he added.

"Each ward in every city should have an independent manifesto following the identification of specific issues of the particular place. Our people are identifying such issues in every district, every city, every village and every taluka," Sane said. He pointed out that water and electricity should be in the public sector as these are basic needs. "Our party is against privatisation of water and electricity. The Sheila Dixit government had increased taxes despite the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DECR) asking to them cut down. The same was reduced after we protested against it," he said.

It would be blessing for us if Anna Hazare appeals to people from Ralegan Siddhi to vote for the party, he added.

The AAP leader and former whistleblower in the state's irrigation scam, Vijay Pandhare, who retired recently as the chief engineer of Maharashtra Engineering Training Academy, said that like Delhi, AAP will provide a better and able alternative for Maharashtra as well. Donations to the party are accepted at their online link - aamaadmiparty.org, keeping the system completely transparent, he added.

Prabhakar Vaychale has been given the profile of Nashik district convenor, Mukund Beni has been appointed as Nashik district secretary, Suresh Shinde as treasurer and Altaf Shaikh as assistant convenor. Dynaneshwar Jadhav has been appointed as Nashik taluka samiti chief while Nakul Borade, Tejas Sonar and Kalpana Pathak have been appointed as its members.

TOI