With an announcement of polls to five municipal corporations and two municipal committees in Haryana, the ruling BJP and opposition parties are bracing up for the key electoral battle in December, just few months ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The civic body polls would be a key test for the Chief Minister Manohar Lal, under whose leadership the BJP led Haryana Government had recently completed its four years terms.
While the polls would be a popularity test for the ruling BJP, for the opposition –Indian National Lok Dal and Congress—it would a golden opportunity to prove themselves ahead of Lok Sabha and assembly polls scheduled next year.
The electoral contest is for the seats of Mayor and members of all wards of five Municipal Corporations including Hisar, Rohtak, Yamunanagar, Panipat and Karnal and of two Municipal committees including Jakhal Mandi (Fatehabad) and Pundri (Kaithal) on December 16.
It would be for the first time that direct election to the post of Mayor would be held in five civic bodies in the state.
To prepare for the upcoming civic polls, the BJP election committee met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Manohar Lal here on Monday to deliberate upon potential candidates for the polls.
Apart from the Chief Minister, state BJP president Subhash Barala, Cabinet Ministers Ram Bilas Sharma, OP Dhankar, Capt. Abhimanyu, Anil Vij, MLAs, district presidents among other party leaders attended the meeting.
Subhash Barala, while talking to the mediapersons after the meeting said that a three-member committee each have been constituted for five MCs to submit feedback for candidates in the election and submit report.
Another meeting is likely to be held on December 1 and names of candidates will be announced after that, he said.
So far, about 100 applications including maximum 23 from Rohtak have been received to contest on the post of Mayor. These applications will be scrutinized, he said.
Barala added that a manifesto or vision document will also be released for the elections, to carry forward the development works of BJP led Central and Haryana Government.
The high-stake electoral battle will see all political parties trying to put up an impressive show in Jat belt of Rohtak, Panipat, Hisar and Chief Minister’s constituency Karnal.
As many as 1401157 voters including 746126 males, 655021 females and 10 transgender would exercise their franchise in these elections.
The coming days will see the ruling BJP carry out an aggressive campaign for the civic polls, where the results will be seen as an indication of voters’ mood ahead of Lok Sabha and assembly polls.
Haryana’s main opposition party, Indian National Lok Dal will also be announcing party candidates this week.
“The party will contest civic body polls on party symbol. The party candidates will be announced by this week,” said Ashok Arora, Haryana INLD chief while talking to The Pioneer.
Arora said that besides the national issues of highest-ever prices of petrol and diesel and corruption, the INLD will raise the local issues including roads, water supply, sanitation, sewerage system among others.
The INLD, which has split after the expulsion of party chief OP Chautala’s elder son Ajay Chautala faces a tough test to prove its mass base in civic polls.
The faction-ridden Haryana Congress, on the other hand, is yet to announce whether it will contest on party symbol or not.
“It is imperative that we contest these elections on party symbol. The elections will help gauge the mood of voters of various assembly constituencies. A formal announcement to contest on party symbol will be made in the coming days,” Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar told The Pioneer.
On election issues, Tanwar said that deteriorating law and order situation in Haryana will be the key issue. Apart from this, problems of sanitation, sewerage system, broken roads, and unfulfiled promise of developing a smart city will be highlighted during the polls, he added.
Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party, which will be contesting parliamentary and assembly polls in Haryana, has announced to stay away from the civic polls.
The nominations for the corporations and committees going to polls will be filed from December 1 to 6, except December 2 when it is a holiday.
The results will be announced on December 19.
For the first time in the country, NOTA (none of the above) will be treated as a ‘fictional electoral candidate’ while declaring the results of municipal polls.
In case, all the contesting candidates individually receive lesser vote than NOTA, then none of the contesting candidate will be declared as elected and fresh election shall be held.