Chandigarh: Once voting concludes for the four assembly bypolls in Punjab on Nov 20, incumbent Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) govt will brace for another high-stakes battle — civic body elections in five key cities of the state.
The party will be banking on its narrative of development works being carried out during its 2.5 years in power.
Even though the Supreme Court had on Nov 11 asked state govt to complete the entire election process of the five corporations and 43 municipal councils in eight weeks, many AAP MLAs have been busy campaigning for the bypolls, and the focus will shift to civic bodies next week. For the ruling party, the challenge will be to start from scratch in these MCs to achieve sizable representation.
Last elections to MCs of Amritsar, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Patiala were held during the previous Congress regime, but these key cities have been without an elected House for over a year now. Phagwara municipal council last went to polls in 2015 and has been awaiting an election since 2020. Madan Lal Bagga, AAP MLA from Ludhiana North, said his party had no councillor in the last MC House with 95 members, but this time it is targeting to get a majority. “AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal had convened a meeting in Delhi recently where we had requested that developmental projects in poll-bound cities be expedited. As a result, the building of a sub-tehsil and a bridge – both located near Chand Theatre – are ready to be inaugurated. There was a lot of confusion about the tehsil as my constituency is spread towards Ludhiana East and Ludhiana West (assembly seats). The bridge will be located on the first chowk on entering Ludhiana from Jalandhar,” he said.
Ajay Gupta, AAP MLA from Amritsar Central, said he was hopeful of sanitation services improving once it has an elected House. “Amritsar MC has 85 councillors and there are 14 wards in my assembly constituency. Campaigning will pick up after the assembly byelections. Among stuck projects, we will prioritise Radial Road project. I had been raising the issue of garbage heaps and now the MC commissioner has hired 95 trolleys and other vehicles for proper garbage collection,” he said.
Harnoor Singh Mann, AAP spokesperson whose father Joginder Singh Mann unsuccessfully contested the last assembly election from Phagwara, said AAP govt would bring Phagwara back on track. “Previous govts did not pay attention to the city even though it should have been in the same league as Jalandhar and Ludhiana,” he said.
Congress MLA from Phagwara seat Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal said: “Congress is ready to face the polls, but it is up to the AAP govt to issue a notification. During the present regime, there has been no development in the urban centres of villages alike,” he added.