It is going to be an acid test for Food and Supplies Minister Imran Hussain, Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, Deputy Speaker Bandana Kumari and nine other AAP legislators who have reportedly been told by the party leadership to ensure the victory of all its candidates as all the 13 municipal wards going for bypolls on May 15 fall under their Assembly seats in the national Capital.
The outcome of the bypoll is also going to decide the future of some of the Ministers in the Cabinet of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Of the 272 municipal seats, bypolls are being held in Qumuruddin Nagar, Shalimar Bagh North, Wazirpur, Ballimaran, Vikas Nagar, Nawada, Matiala, Munirka, Nanakpura, Bhati, Tehkhand, Khichripur and Jhilmill wards. Except for Nanakpura and Munirka wards, which fall under the jurisdiction of RK Puram MlA Promila Tokas, all the remaining 11 wards fall under the jurisdiction of only one Assembly segment. Of these 13 AAP legislators, about half-a-dozen had themselves earlier represented their respective municipal wards.
While the BJP has fielded candidates relatively having past experience in contesting municipal and Assembly polls, except for Nawada, Tehkhand and Khichripur wards, the Congress has fielded fresh faces in the remaining 10-odd municipal seats.
Political pundits said the bypolls are going to throw a major challenge for all the three parties. For the BJP, which heads all the three municipal corporations, the bypolls will be a barometer to see whether the voters are satisfied with their four-year-old performance in the municipal wards. The bypolls’ outcome will also indicate how the saffron party is going to make its mark in the 2017 municipal elections in all the 272 wards.
The bypolls are also going to throw a major challenge for the Congress which was wiped out in both Assembly and lok Sabha elections in the national Capital. If some surveys conducted in the recent past are any indication, then the Congress is likely to retain some of its voters it had lost to the AAP. That means, the rise of the Congress is going to be a major threat to the AAP, which had completely eaten into its vote bank in the Assembly polls by securing 67 of the 70 seats.
Source said the AAP leadership has made it clear to its legislators, under whose jurisdiction the wards going for bypolls fall, that they would be squarely responsible for the outcome of the election results. The outcome of bypolls is likely to act as a benchmark for the CM to effect a Cabinet reshuffle in his Council of Ministers.
For instance, if Imran Hussain in unable to secure victory for his Ballimaran candidate, he will to do a lot of explaining to the party high command. He may even lose his Cabinet berth, sources said. While Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel has been holding aggressive campaign for his Jhilmil ward candidate, Deputy Speaker Bandana Kumari has been personally supervising the campaigning of her Shalimar Bagh North candidate.
Though the Chief Minister is said to be happy over the functioning of Goel, there are indications that he might be inducted into his Council of Ministers in the next Cabinet reshuffle. Talks are also doing rounds in the AAP circles that Transport Minister Gopal Rai, who is not keeping well, may either be made the Speaker of the Assembly or may be
given charge of some board or corporation.