The preparations for the urban body polls in the State Capital have commenced. There is stiff competition among the local Ministers, parliamentarian and the legislators for being in the limelight by laying foundation stones for developmental works.
There are two local Ministers — Home Minister Babulal Gaur and Higher Education Minister Umashankar Gupta. The daughter-in-law of Gaur, Krishna Gaur, is the present Mayor of Bhopal and she is again in the race for the post. Similarly, Gupta had been Mayor of the city once and feels that one of his supporters should be fielded for the post.
Notably, the election for the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) was delayed due to High Court directives and after Governor’s nod, the election is likely in January last week.
Anticipating that before the polls the model code of conduct would come into force probably in December first week, the local Ministers, parliamentarian and BJP legislators are out laying foundation stones for developmental works in different parts of the city.
In the past four days, these leaders have performed bhumi pujan for works worth around Rs 20 crore. Most of the works are those that are pending for long, but they did not pay any heed to them earlier.
Only on Monday, the Home Minister visited different areas of his constituency and performed bhumi pujan for the construction of roads, boundary wall, wall of a nullah, drainage and rationalizing the sewerage system.
Similarly, Umashankar Gupta on Monday initiated construction of five works including cement concrete roads and drains. In the past three days, he also initiated construction works worth more than Rs 6 lakh.
Similar is the condition of local legislators Vishwas Sarang, Surendranath Singh and Rameshwar Sharma, and parliamentarian Alok Sanjar. These leaders feel that initiating works in their constituencies would help them get tickets for their supporters in the civic body polls.