With prestige at stake in MC polls, BJP, Cong tread cautiously in Himachal
The Congress has sought feedback from the local units on candidates for the civic body polls while the ruling party is taking a survey to assess the ability of its candidates
With the municipal corporation elections in Himachal being seen as precursor to the Assembly elections, both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress are treading with caution.
A day after the state election commission announced the poll schedule for four municipal corporations – Solan, Palampur, Mandi and Dharamshala, the parties held series of meetings to the rev up their strategy for the elections and are treading cautiously to select candidates.
The Congress said it will announce names of candidates in all 64 wards once the state election committee approves the candidates. The party’s state election committee will meet on March 21 to the decide on the names.
The Congress has sought feedback from the local units on candidates for the civic body polls while the ruling partyis taking a survey to assess the ability of its candidates to win.
“The party has sought reports from observers and its local units by March 19 and candidates will be the declared on March 2,” said Congress’ state party chief Kuldeep Singh Rathore , while accusing the ruling party of registering bogus voters to improve its prospects in corporation elections.
“ The chief minister did nothing to improve the condition of the four towns during his regime and now he is making announcements about adding more facilities to the newly created municipal corporations,” said Rathore, adding that the Congress will come out with a vision document for the corporation.
Himachal Pradesh’s BJP chief Suresh Kashyap held a virtual meeting with in-charges of all 64 wards of the four MCs to take stock of poll preparedness. The meeting was also attended by state party in-charge Avinash Rai Khanna and co-in-charge Sanjay Tandon.
“The BJP is setting up committees in every ward to check rebellion. Besides it is also taking a survey to assess the candidates ability to win. The BJP is likely to announce its candidates on March 19,” Kashyap said, appealing all workers to reach out to 100% voters through door-to-door campaigning.
He said ward meetings will be held regularly and all committees will be activated to fight these elections on war footing.
State co-in-charge Sanjay Tandon said the BJP will fight the poll battle on ground and the main focus will be on door-to-door campaigning. “He also stressed that all frontal organisation should be on the forefront in all wards. The vision document will have details of issues being faced in each of the 64 wards,” he said.
