With the announcement of dates of local body polls in Uttar Pradesh, all four major players—the BJP, the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and the Congress—have geared up. The polls will commence on November 22 and end on November 29.
The polls will be a litmus test for the BJP, as this is the first time that the party will fight the opposition with its government in both the centre and state levels. Senior BJP leaders and RSS activists have started holding regular ward meetings with the party cadre for ensuring the victory of their candidates. The party’s list of candidates is likely to come out next week. For the mayoral posts, the party has received 36 applications from women candidates.
According to party spokesperson Manoj Mishra, the BJP is taking these polls very seriously. The party has deployed two senior leaders for each municipal corporation to ensure the victory of its candidate. In every district and major city, three senior party leaders have been deputed to fine-tune poll preparations.
The local body polls are a golden opportunity for the SP to prove itself and gain lost ground. The results will also show whether SP could succeed in making a dent in the BJP votes or not. The party has already made it clear that this time it ‘would go alone’, as opposed to when it formed an alliance with the Congress in the 2017 UP assembly polls. The party has appointed in-charges in every district; its present legislators, former MLAs, and other senior leaders and have been asked to camp in these districts.
They have been asked to find out a candidate acceptable for all. Party national president Akhilesh Yadav and his wife Dimple Yadav will take command of campaign in their own hands. For mayoral candidates, the party has asked three names from each seats out of which one would be finalised. According to city head of the party Naveen Dhavan , the party will focus on development works done by Akhilesh government during its campaign.
Though the BSP normally stays away from such polls, this time the party head and former chief minister Mayawati has decided to take part in it. The biggest challenge before the party is to finalise its candidates. In most of the wards, the BSP is yet to decide the candidates. The party has formed a committee which will finalise the candidates ward-wise. After this, the names will go to a screening committee which will finally clear the names. According to party leader Paresh Mishra, the party is fully prepared for local body polls and it will go for such candidates who have considerable influence in all the sections of the society. According to district president Harikrishna Gautam, tickets will be finalised in coming couple of days.
This time, the party has a considerable number of young candidates for contesting these polls. According to district head Gaurav Chaudhary, the party will field more young candidates. The total number of applicants too have gone up as compared to last year, said Gaurav. Those candidates who have lost the last elections, or have two or three poll experiences in the past, will not be considered.
