Jaipur: BJP gears up for municipal polls

JAIPUR: The BJP had started preparing for the municipal elections in the state much before the clouds of uncertainty had cleared.
The party has now constituted a five-member monitoring committee to take stock of the preparations. The committee comprises party's senior members — Ashok Saini, Shravan Bagdi, Madhu Kumawat, H Khan and Meenakshi Pareek.
The committee will work on campaigning and oversee meetings to be held during the polls. Organisation general secretary Chandrashekhar also held a meeting of this state-level monitoring committee in which all aspects regarding the elections were discussed. Chandrashekhar also called Malaviya Nagar MLA Kalicharan Saraf and Vidyadhar Nagar MLA Narpat Singh Rajvi separately to know their perspective about the Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC).
A senior party office-bearer said, “Since the JMC was constituted, the BJP has retained majority. In such a situation, the party wants to maintain its record and do not want to lose its strong hold." After the formation of 250 wards, the party strategist also discussed about the new circumstances and changed equations due to fresh delimitation.
Sources said the situation cannot be ruled out that BJP’s chances of winning in the election during the Covid times are comparatively lesser. "A less voter turnout could go against BJP," said a source. The party is also taking feedback to devise a strategy if elections happened in October.
In a legal cell meeting on Thursday, the state law cell convenor of BJP, Surendra Singh Naruka said that in the municipal elections, all legal information will be obtained from the applicant by the party.
In a big political move, the state government last year decided that Jaipur, Jodhpur and Kota will each have two municipal corporations and two mayors. UDH minister Shanti Dhariwal said the decision was taken as these three cities have a population of over 10 lakh each.
The move was to weaken the BJP's strong hold in cities. BJP is worried as the move might favour many independent candidates. "The size of the wards is reduced and the average population of one ward is 10,000 to 12,000. This will increase the possibility of independent candidates, who are associated with people of their wards and carrying out their works, winning the elections. Party tickets will not matter much in these polls," said Sushil Sharma, a former independent candidate.