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MC elections: Political activities heat up in Chandigarh
The Chandigarh MC elections scheduled in December this year will see a three-cornered contest between ruling BJP, main opposition Congress and new entrant AAP
The political temperature in Chandigarh is starting to heat up with just about two months to go for the municipal corporation election.
Political parties are strengthening their party structures, mobilising party workers on the ground, wooing rival party workers to cross over and organising public outreach programmes.
The elections scheduled in December this year are going to be a three-cornered affair. The ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) is looking to repeat its last election performance, when it won more than 80% seats.
Banking on anti-incumbency, the Congress is hoping to finally end its losing streak: it not only lost the last MC elections but also the two previous Lok Sabha elections in the city.
The new entrant in the MC elections, Aam Admi Party (AAP), is confident of making a major dent in the fortunes of both BJP and Congress. The party entered the city politics on a strong footing in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, but has frittered the advantage in the next seven years. Now, once again the party is building up momentum to challenge the two established parties.
Focus on party structures
“Appointment of panna parmukh, constitution of booth committees and polling station committees (shakti kendras) have been done. Party’s different morchas (cells) have been given fresh impetus and nearly 35,000 party members have been given specific responsibilities for the elections,” said Arun Sood, BJP city chief.
The Congress is also reconstituting the party organisation at different levels. “We are appointing office-bearers at different levels, bringing in new faces and also reorienting the role of experienced hands,” said Subhash Chawla, president, Chandigarh Congress.
AAP on September 3 dissolved its organisation structure of the Chandigarh unit. “We will within a fortnight finalise the new organisation structure. Our policy will be to have the right person for the right post,” said Chander Mukhi Sharma, chairman, election campaign committee.
Direct connect with voters
Congress has started “nukkad” meetings across the city. “In a day, we are having multiple nukkad meetings in every block and district. We are meeting party workers and guiding them on the key election issues, where we need to be on the offensive and areas where we might have to be defensive. In nukkad meetings, we are also discussing the BJP strategy,” said Chawla.
The BJP has put more than 35,000 of its party members to work, giving them specific election responsibilities. “We are organising sammelans (conclaves) at different levels, both within the party and with residents. We have also planned out how these meetings will work out in the days to come. Thirty programmes are being organised daily,” said Sood.
The AAP has initiated the ‘Jan Sampark Abhiyan’. “Public meetings and worker-level meetings are being organised on a daily basis. We are also taking up civic problems of the people and staging protests at the ground level if needed,” said Sharma.
Documenting failures, achievements
The Congress is preparing a chargesheet against BJP governance in the last five years. Chawla said it will detail the failures of the BJP on all the fronts in the city. “The municipal corporation under BJP has totally failed to meet the people’s expectations. They have only burdened the people with taxes. They couldn’t deliver on their election promises,” he said.
For the BJP, work on the preparation of the vision document (manifesto) and a booklet on its achievements in the last five years has started. “We are relying on our development. By October, we will place before the people what we have done,” said Sood.
AAP’s focus will be on the implementation. “People are tired of these chargesheets. We will bring in new perspective on these issues so that people know what has been done and what should be done,” said Sharma.
