The campaign for elections of the Municipal Corporation Chandigarh (MCC) concluded at 5 pm on Tuesday with leaders of all the main political parties, including Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), giving last-minute push for their leaders and contesting candidates.
The polling is scheduled for December 24 across 694 polling booths in 35 wards of the city. Polling booths have been made in government schools, community centers and other government buildings. This time, 6,33,475 voters will exercise their vote in the MC polls.
Talking to The Pioneer, Chandigarh Police spokesperson DSP (CID) Ram Gopal said, “The list of sensitive booths was shared with the State Election Commission. A total of 212 polling booths have been put in the category of sensitive booths in Chandigarh MC Polls. Additional police forces will be deployed at sensitive booths in the city”
Police sources said that these booths were declared sensitive on the basis of thick population, number of the candidates, voters, previous history of the booths, topography, etc. These booths are vulnerable in view of any untoward incidents happening. The state election commission has received feedback from the local intelligence unit of Chandigarh Police to declare these booths as sensitive. Of the 212, a majority of these booths are situated in slum areas, rehabilitation colonies and villages. These places include Mauli Jagran, Mani Majra, Hallo Majra, village Daria, EWS colonies Dhanas, Khuda Ali Sher, Khuda Jassu, etc, they added.
On the last day of the campaign, BJP State President Arun Sood stated that city residents will retain the BJP-led Municipal Corporation in the upcoming local bodies elections. Sood along with former State President Sanjay Tandon and former MP Satya Pal Jain were addressing a press conference while wrapping up their campaign report on Tuesday. BJP leaders reiterated in unison that Chandigarh belongs only to the residents of Chandigarh. Leaders affirmed that Chandigarh neither belongs to Punjab or Haryana, but to its people.
While urging the people to vote for Congress party in MC poll, Netta D’Souza, All India Mahila Congress president on Tuesday called upon the city women to give the city in safe hands this time. Addressing a press conference at Congress Bhawan, she said that Chandigarh city which used to be known for its beautiful landscape and learned populace is now leading the country in crime against women.
AAP and the Congress are also raking up other issues like inflation, water tariff hike, taxes and corruption, and BJP’s main poll plank is “development”, but it is the city’s garbage problems on which all three are gunning against each other the hardest.
Garbage management also prominently appeared in the manifestoes of the parties. Both the Congress and the AAP are promising to make “Chandigarh No.1” again, while the BJP is assuring complete removal of garbage from the Dadumajra dumping ground and even promising collection of waste from all floors. Just a month back, the city had fared poorly in the Swachh Survekshan national rankings 2021 due to poor waste collection and disposal system. The City Beautiful slipped to 66th position in the country on the cleanliness front. The Congress castigated the BJP for its six years of “inaction” on the issue, worsening the problem manifold. The BJP in turn asserted the problem as the legacy of Congress’ “misrule and corrupt decision-making”.
The AAP, though hammering both rival parties for the garbage dump mess, itself has been getting cornered by the Congress and the BJP for its own “failure” to clean-up garbage “mountains” in Delhi, where AAP has been in power for nearly six years.
