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Uttarakhand CM launches BJP's campaign for November 18 civic body polls
Over the next four days, Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Sinhg Rawat is slated to address about two dozen public meetings besides leading BJP workers and supporters at various roadshows ahead of the November 18 urban local body polls in the state.
Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Sunday launched the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s statewide campaign for the November 18 urban local body elections through a roadshow and several public meetings in Derhadun, while the party’s state unit president Ajay Bhatt took the charge in Kumaon.
Over the next four days, Rawat is slated to address about two dozen public meetings besides leading his party’s workers and supporters at various roadshows. Bhatt’s poll campaign, on the other hand, will remain confined to the six districts in Kumaon, conducting public meetings and rallies in nearly all the urban pockets of the region.
On Sunday, the chief minister addressed four back-to-back public meetings in the state capital. He is scheduled to wind up his tour with a public meeting at Dehradun cantonment area, and will cover most of the urban regions in the state’s 13 districts over the next four days.
Speaking to HT over the phone from Bhikyasen in Kumaon, Bhatt said his campaign itinerary also includes holding meetings with party workers. “Such interactions will help motivate them and they will participate in the poll campaign with full gusto,” he said.
The BJP leader said his party had launched “an aggressive campaign” because it considers the local body polls “very crucial” due to to the “bigger poll battles that lie ahead”, referring to the five assembly elections later this year and the Lok Sabha elections around the middle of next year.
“For us, a good show in the civic body polls is crucial as it will help keep the morale of our party workers high ahead of the Lok Sabha polls,” he said, and spoke about his party’s “three-pronged strategy” to ensure BJP’s victory in the November 18 civic polls.
The party, he said, has weaved its poll campaign broadly around the Rawat government’s policy of “zero tolerance for corruption” and the push it claims to have given to development. Besides, the BJP is also publicising a number of civic works carried out in urban areas since it won the assembly elections in 2017. Its campaigners are also telling people that if the Congress dominates the civic bodies, it will “push back the process of development initiated by the Rawat government”.
The chief minister touched upon it in the speech he delivered while campaigning for Sunil Uniyal Gama, the BJP candidate for the mayoral post in Dehradun Municipal Corporation. Gama is considered close to Rawat and the latter was “instrumental” in getting his protégé the ticket to contest the election.
Rawat said the people should remember the “anti-graft measures” taken by him since he took charge of the state nearly two years ago, and cited the example of the NH-74 scam and the suspension of two IAS officers allegedly involved in it. “We also took a strong action against teachers who secured jobs by submitting fake documents,” Rawat said, adding that so far, nearly 60 officials found involved in different scams “are cooling their heels in prison.”
About his government’s performance on the development front, he said a number of initiatives have been taken, which would help check forced migration form the hills while ensuring reverse migration. He spoke of the “recently held Investors’ Summit, where memorandums of understanding proposing investments worth more than ₹1.25 lakh crore were signed” between the government and investors.
“Similarly, some dams are also being built on rivers like Saung, which will help resolve the problem of water shortage in Dehradun and its surrounding areas,” Rawat said.
Referring to the upcoming smart city project he said it would help resolve most of the civic issues facing the residents of the capital city. “We are also telling the people that if the Congress dominates the civic body polls the growth process would be hampered as it would not cooperate with the state government”, Bhatt said. State Congress president Pritam Singh said the people were unhappy with the Rawat government owing to its failure on all fronts. “So, naturally the people are going to vote for us in the civic body polls”, he said.
