Parties to use senior leaders for campaigning in Ghaziabad; UP CM to hold public rally
Local body polls in Ghaziabad district, which nine local bodies, will he held on May 11, in the second phase of elections. As many as 1,837 candidates are in the fray for the nine seats of mayor/chairpersons and 294 seats of councillors/members
As the date for the local body polls draws closer, different political parties are stepping up their campaigning in Ghaziabad and are likely to bring in their senior leaders to canvas votes. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders said chief minister Yogi Adityanath will arrive in Ghaziabad for a public event on May 5.
Local body polls in Ghaziabad district, which nine local bodies, will he held on May 11, in the second phase of elections. As many as 1,837 candidates are in the fray for the nine seats of mayor/chairpersons and 294 seats of councillors/members.
The nine local bodies include the Ghaziabad municipal corporation (100 wards), four nagar palikas of Modinagar (34 wards), Muradnagar (25 wards), Khoda (34 wards) and Loni (55 wards). Besides these, there are four nagar panchayats of Patla (10 wards), Faridnagar (11 wards), Dasna (15 wards) and Niwari (10 wards).
“Adityanath will arrive in Ghaziabad for campaigning on May 5 and this will instil fresh enthusiasm in our workers. The CM is popular among the public and will also visit other western Uttar Pradesh districts of Meerut, Hapur and Bulandshahr. He is likely to hold a campaign event at Kavi Nagar Ramlila ground. His presence will bolster our campaigning and also strengthen our agenda of development,” said Ashu Verma, BJP’s election campaign coordinator.
During the assembly elections in February 2022, Adityanath visited Ghaziabad four times and targeted opposition parties especially on the issue of law and order.
The BJP office-bearers said they are contesting on all 294 seats and also the nine seats of mayor/chairpersons of the nine local bodies.
The BJP is keen to retain the mayoral seat of Ghaziabad municipal corporation. Incidentally, since 1994, when the status of the municipal board was upgraded to a corporation, the ruling party has held the mayoral post each successive term.
Similar to the BJP’s campaign, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) office-bearers said their 62 MLAs from Delhi will arrive in Ghaziabad to campaign. They said the party leaders instead of focussing on road shows and rallies, will hold more pad yatras and nukkad sabhas to connect with voters.
“These 62 MLAs are campaigning in western UP districts and our senior leaders such as MP Sanjay Singh will also arrive in Ghaziabad. Our plan is to focus on different class of voters. So, the respective AAP leader will visit specific areas in Ghaziabad and they are expected to arrive after the campaigning ends for the first phase in UP,” said Sachin Sharma, district president of the AAP.
The Congress is also banking on support from its party leaders step up the election campaign.
“The state Congress committee is likely to send a list of leaders who will visit Ghaziabad for campaigning. The list is likely to arrive over the next couple of days. At the grassroots level, our local leaders are visiting wards to canvas for candidates. The arrival of Adityanath in Ghaziabad is an attempt to woo the substantial number of voters from Uttarakhand. But in our case, even our mayor candidate is from Uttarakhand and is currently receiving overwhelming support from voters,” said Lokesh Chaudhary, city president, Congress.
The first phase of voting in the Uttar Pradesh local body polls will be held on May 4 and the election campaign will come to an end on May 2. Thereafter, the leaders of different parties will focus on campaigning in districts that go to polls in the second phase on May 11. The campaigning for the second phase will end on the evening of May 9.