Rebel candidates may upset the winning prospects of both the Congress and BJP’s mayoral candidates in the municipal corporation of Haldwani polls. If party fails to persuade them to withdraw their nomination paper, then Assembly election like result would happen and will create problem for next five years.
The list of rebel candidates is long who are disappointed with their respective party’s decision to ignore their candidatures for the post of city’s mayor.
It is now to be seen whether the respective parties manage to cause the rebel candidates withdraw their candidatures from the fray on the day of withdrawal or not.
With Congress declaring Hemant Bagarwal as its candidate for the Haldwani city’s mayor, a senior Congress candidate Iqbal Bharti has also filed his nomination.
“The Congress party has taken a wrong decision in nominating the candidate for mayor seat. I don’t accept this decision. There is a huge about 40,000 muslim voters in the MCH,” said Bharti.
This time the Muslim community had demanded to grant representation to a muslim candidate in the local civic body. But the Congress party has only ignored the wishes of a huge section of the society, he alleged .
Similarly, a senior woman Congress leader Shobha Bisht, also filed her nomination for the post of the mayor of Haldwani. However, when asked why she had filed her nomination when the party has already declared its candidate, she declined to answer to any query in this regard.
Besides, a senior Congress leader Khajan Pande has also filed his nomination for the post of Haldwani city mayor. However, Pande maintained that earlier he was assured by the party leadership for giving ticket for the post of mayor of Haldwani. “But it seems succumbing to the pressure of the some local leaders, my candidature was ignored for this mayor post,” Pande allegedly said.
“It is quite disappointing the way the party has sidelined the party activists like me who have been working for the Congress for so many years,” he added.
In the meanwhile, Sumit Haridayesh, chairman of the Haldwani mandi samiti and son of Finance Minister Indira Haridayesh, has demanded expulsion of those party activists who have filed the nomination defying the party directions. “I demand from the senior leaders of the party to expel these leaders who are fighting the elections against the party’s wishes,” he added.
In the meanwhile, senior BJP leader Hukum Singh Kunwar has also filed his nomination for the election of the mayor. He openly criticised the party for ignoring his candidature.
The fact is that I was also seeking the party ticket for MlA during the last assembly elections. But that time too my candidature was ignored. I have served for more than three decades in this party. But the BJP has ignored me.
Therefore, now I have filed my nomination as an independent candidate for the post of the city mayor, Now it is upto the public to decide, Kunwar maintained.