The prestige of State presidents of both Congress and the BJP is at stake in Khandwa and Burhanpur towns where municipal elections are scheduled on November 28.
BJP’s president Nandkumar Singh Chouhan and Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Arun Yadav hail from Khandwa and both had been contesting from the same Khandwa-Burhanpur parliamentary constituency.
In the last lok Sabha polls held this year, Chouhan has defeated Yadav from this constituency, while in the year 2009, Yadav had won against Chouhan. Both the senior leaders of the party are now taking two municipal corporation polls seriously and making all out efforts to wrest particularly Mayor posts in both the Corporations.
These two leaders also played important role in getting tickets for their supporters in the elections. In Khandwa, BJP has fielded Subhash Kothari against Congress’ Ajay Ojha, while in Burhanpur, Congress has pitted Ismail Ansari against BJP’s Anil Bhonsale. Since, both Chouhan and Yadav hold key posts in the party, they had a strong say in getting tickets for their supporters.
Soon after the tickets were declared, both the leaders camped most of the time in their constituencies and campaigned for their supporters. BJP sources claimed that other leaders hailing from the region, minister Vijay Shah and BJP legislator Archana Chitnis visited both the places only for few days, leaving it out the state BJP chief to campaign.
Similar were the position of Congress, as no other senior leader from the state campaigned in these places except for the state Congress chief.