Aiming to strike a chord with the city residents ahead of lok Sabha elections 2014, the Chandigarh BJP is on a signature campaign spree.
After the recently concluded signature campaign against local MP Pawan Kumar Bansal, the party initiated another signature campaign against the UT Administration. The signature campaign was against Administration’s proposal of supplying electricity through private contractor to a colony in the city.
To strengthen its vote base in the city, the party is trying hard to woo the slum dwellers who are in large numbers in the city. The party has started raising their problems with the Administration actively ahead of the parliamentary elections.
There are 18 slums spread in different parts of the city with a total of 23,974 houses and a population of over 1.5 lakh. The official figures stated that colony number 5 has maximum population living in 7035 houses, followed by colony number 4 with 5185 houses.
During the signature campaign at the colony no. 4, the party managed to collect more than 2000 signatures against the private electricity contractor demanding immediate withdrawal of the contract.
On the issue, a delegation of BJP led by party president Sanjay Tandon along with vice president Harishankar Mishra and councillors also met KK Sharma, Advisor to Administrator and UT Finance Secretary VK Singh on Thursday to submit a memorandum and signatures demanding withdrawal of the proposal of supply of electricity through private contractor in colony no. 4 in Industrial Area, Phase-I here.
After submitting the memorandum, Sanjay Tandon said, “Electricity Department has initiated the process of supplying the electricity to the slum dwellers through a private contractor. The private contractor has started demanding huge amount in the name of security of electricity meters and installation charges whereas the electricity meters are already installed in most of the houses in the slum area.”
Apparently, from seeking basic amenities for the city residents to organizing various campaigns, the leaders of Chandigarh BJP have become pro-active keeping in view the lok Sabha elections scheduled next year.
The party leaders are meeting officials of UT Administration and Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh every other day putting forth demands of city residents and submitting memorandums.
And, the signature campaign seems to have become a favorite and effective campaigning tool for the BJP.
Earlier during the signature campaign against local MP Pawan Kumar Bansal, who is under fire for his alleged involvement in Railway Board Bribery Scam, the BJP collected over 3000 signatures from various parts of the city.