Samajwadi Party is all set to field candidates in the forthcoming urban local bodies’ election slated in April. Informing on Tuesday, the SP State chief Kuldeep Singh Rawat said that they might form a front with CPI, CPI-M and some other parties to take on the ruling BJP. While hailing the State High Court’s Monday ruling to maintain the status quo by the current Govt over delimitation of urban local bodies to absorb rural areas into the UlBs, he said that it might stop the adamant State Govt from going ahead on the sensitive matter. “The State Government’s move on the matter is arbitrary. People of the rural areas have not been taken into confidence while shoving things on them. Such a step of including panchayat areas under the gram sabhas should be taken on the basis of the consensus involving those to be affected by the move,” the SP leader said.
He further said that the process of selecting candidates has started. “There are many claimants for the tickets. However, the final call would be taken by party’s election committee in consultation with the senior leaders,” he added. Notably,Dehradun, Haridwar, Roorkee, Haldwani-Kathgodam, Rudrapur, Kashipur, Kotdwar and Rishikesh-all municipal corporations- are set to elect mayors during the election the dates of which are yet to be announced. Besides, there are 92 urban local bodies spread across the state, where elections are due this year. In the 2013 local body polls, of the 690 wards across the state, independents had a lion’s share, winning 369, while BJP and Congress had been contended with 180 and 135 respectively, according to state election website data. Four seats had gone to the kitty of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) while one each had gone to Samajwadi Party (SP) and Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD).a