Ahead of the Haridwar municipal corporation election expected to be held in the near future, the two principal contenders Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress are now going at full throttle to establish supremacy in the politically important district. At the same time, the leaders of both the parties are trying to pitch for their loyalists or even their relations as the candidates for the election.
The BJP being the ruling party which romped back to power in the State with a landslide just a year ago, the clamour for tickets for the loyalists or the relations by the leaders is naturally shriller in the saffron camp than in the Congress which, after licking its wounds inflicted by the severe Assembly election drubbing for some time, is now trying to reassert itself through a spirited show in the upcoming civic body election.
The electoral equations have undergone a sea- change following the changed contour of the reserved wards, post delimitation by the election commission and the leaders of both the parties are trying to derive the maximum advantage of the changed status of the wards.
The sitting councillors of the wards which have seen changes in reservation status are leading the show as they are going the whole hog to have either their relations or loyalists fielded as the party candidates. The BJP councillor from Har Ki Paidi Kanhaiya Khewadia is now seeking ticket for his wife while the BJP leader Vidit Sharma from Bhupatwala ward is seeking ticket for his mother.
A Congress leader Aman Garg from Gau Ghat is also seeking candidature for his mother.
As far as the post of the mayor is concerned, a former Congress councillor Ashok Sharma is learnt to be fighting for the post while Subhash Chand is staking his claim for the same in BJP.
However, more interestingly, they are both propping up their wives as candidates for wards they have selected. While Sharma is trying to have his wife Anita favoured with the party ticket for Rajghat ward Chand is pitching for his wife Kiran as a candidate for Mayapur ward.
Meanwhile, BJP is now trying to cozy up to formidable district labour front leaders of the Congress like Ashok Tandon and Adarsh Jaitley. BJP insiders say that the cabinet minister Madan Kaushik is talking to them personally to make them switch sides, something- if it happens- might deal a deadly blow to the Congress in the run- up to the civic body election here.
However, things are still mired in speculative murkiness as the Congress leaders thus approached are maintaining a studied silence