On the first anniversary of its formation after breaking away from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan–led Swaraj Abhiyan on Thursday decided to ‘experiment’ in electoral politics, beginning with a ‘pilot project’ in one ward during the upcoming by-elections to the Delhi Municipal Corporation.

“Swaraj Abhiyan is not a political party but the upcoming by-election in MCD is an occasion to create a model of how it may intervene in electoral politics in the future,” the party said on Thursday, as it took its first step to being a full-fledged political party.

The ‘experiment’ entails working out a “model for the candidate selection process to find a people's candidate (lok-umeedwar) and empower citizens in selecting their own candidates,” it said in a statement. It also appointed senior advocate Kamini Jaiswal and ex-IITian Pawan Gupta as Lokpals of Swaraj Abhiyan.

After completion of one year, Swaraj Abhiyan also announced internal elections in line with its promise of “internal democracy”, differences over which with Arvind Kejriwal had led to the ouster of the Yadav-Bhushan duo from AAP.

Since its inception on April 14, 2015, Swaraj Abhiyan, which calls itself a “movement for alternative politics”, has been raising issues of agrarian distress, corruption, education and communalism.

It has also approached the Supreme Court to direct Central and 12 State governments to ensure immediate relief to drought hit people, with Bhushan arguing the case for which the final hearing is scheduled for April 19. “The case has already forced the Central and various State governments to announce a series of additional measures for drought relief,” the statement added.

As of now Swaraj Abhiyan said it had over 100 members each across 13 States, including Delhi, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana, Punjab among others.

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