By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 25 Dec: During an informal chat with media persons at the State Party headquarters here, today, BJP state president Mahendra Bhatt shared that all the party candidates for the municipal elections in the state would be announced in the next two to three days. He stated that since the BJP candidates are guaranteed to win, there are many contenders for each seat and ward. Discussions are being held in a detailed manner, he stated. He also criticised the Congress, claiming that party is short of candidates and does not have names from all communities for many seats, which is why they are complaining about reservations.
While answering media questions, Bhatt emphasised that, in BJP, the list of contenders is very long for each seat and ward. Responding to the allegations levelled by Congress State President Karan Mahar on reservation of seats and wards, Bhatt claimed that Congress lacks workers from all communities on all seats, which is why the Congress leaders are complaining about determination of the reservations in the civic polls. Bhatt asserted that, for the first time, a proper constitutional process has been followed in the determination of the reservations by sympathetic consideration of more than 1,000 objections received against provisional reservations. He claimed that Congress is clearly seeing its defeat and its leaders are afraid of contesting the elections.
State General Secretary Aditya Kothari also commented on Congress’s statements, noting that BJP has more than two dozen contenders on many seats, while Congress is short of candidates and unable to find suitable candidates for many civic seats. He claimed that BJP follows a fixed process of candidate selection, which is being adhered to. Since most people contest elections to win, it is natural for workers to crowd the BJP office and seek tickets. In contrast, Congress workers are making rounds of their respective bosses due to factionalism in the process of grabbing tickets.
State media in-charge Manveer Singh Chauhan informed reporters that, on the second day of discussions with observers at the party headquarters, the probable candidates from the districts of Garhwal division were discussed. A panel of the top three names for all Municipal Corporations, Municipal Council Presidents, and Nagar Panchayat Presidents of Dehradun Metropolitan, Dehradun Rural, Haridwar, Roorkee, Pauri, Tehri, Uttarkashi, and Kotdwar was prepared for Garhwal division. This panel will be discussed by the State Election Management Committee in the next two days. He, however, also conceded that the names of the corporation mayoral candidates will be announced only after the consent of the central leadership.
