Mayoral polls: No political tie-ups in sight

Amid tall claims about forming a coalition of Opposition parties in the State, keeping in mind the strength of the ruling BJP; the call for unity is nowhere for the upcoming Municipal Corporation elections. As the urban local body election approaches, all major parties have gone ahead into huddle inside.

Leaders of Congress, JMM, JVM and even smaller parties like RJD and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are of the view that the election is an opportunity to satisfy their respective workers and there is no need to instigate their inner fight for the sake of show of strength.

“We are going to field our candidates for the mayoral polls. Coalition talks were not about local level elections but for the larger polls coming in future. This would also give a chance to the party to test its waters ahead of future assignments,” said Congress leader Rajesh Thakur.

The party has held several meetings, one such on Sunday itself, involving its senior leaders including Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajoy Kumar where it was decided unanimously to participate into the municipal polls.

Eight urban local bodies namely Ranchi, Medininagar, Hazaribagh, Giridih, Deoghar, Dhanbad, Chas and Adityapur have been notified as municipal corporations this time by the State Election Commission where election for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor would be hold on political lines.

Inclusion of probable candidates eyeing for the posts have also started in different parties. Sources into the Congress said that induction of former Deputy Mayor of Ranchi Ajay Sahadeo very recently is one such example.

“He has come back into the party fold from the BJP looking to contest for Deputy Mayor’s post for Ranchi. Since the post of Mayor is reserved for Scheduled Tribe, names of former Mayor Rama Khalko as well as of Ajay Tirkey and couple of others are doing rounds,” said a senior leader.

Similarly, the main party in Opposition JMM is leaving no stone unturned to show its political clout in the local polls. “We would finalise the list of our candidates contesting for mayors and deputy mayors for all the eight municipal corporations soon. Several names have come up and a meeting of senior party leaders would be called before declaring the candidates,” said JMM general secretary Suprio Bhattacharya.

New entrant AAP has sniffed the elections as an opportunity to re-launch the Arvind Kejriwal’s party into State politics. The party had held a meeting of State committee on Saturday.

“AAP has initiated emphatically into the municipal elections. The Governments over the years have made the important governing body dead. It is the rights of the people to take active part into managing affairs of their own city and towns. We would ensure candidates with clean image and contest the elections everywhere with our full potential,” said AAP State president Jayshnakar Chaudhary.