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Mukesh Tandon
All political parties are taking the Municipal Corporation (MC) elections in Panipat as a preparatory test for the general and Assembly elections due next year. They have put up candidates in the MC elections and leaders are campaigning for them.
The Panipat mayoral seat is reserved for women belonging to the Backward Classes (BC) category and as many as 328,259 voters are eligible to cast their votes on December 16. However, around 128,000 voters, mainly migrants from villages and other states, living in outer colonies of the city hold the key to victory.
The political parties have selected their candidates considering their caste and community votes, their image and loyalty towards the party, say sources.
According to political pundits, BJP and Congress leaders, who are campaigning in the MC elections, are also trying to strengthen the vote banks of their parties for the parliamentary and Assembly elections.
The BJP is contesting the elections on its symbol and Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, ministers Ram Bilas Sharma, Anil Vij, Om Prakash Dhankar, Krishan Lal Panwar, and Naib Singh Saini, MLAs Rohita Rewri and Mahipal Dhanda along with local leaders are campaigning for the party candidates.
Though the Congress is not contesting the elections on its symbol, senior Congress leader Virender Singh ‘Bulle Shah’ is said to have finalised all candidates. He may be the Congress candidate from the Panipat urban seat in the next Assembly elections.
Besides, another Congress group headed by five-time MLA Balbir Pal Shah, elder brother of Bulle Shah, is keeping a close watch on the elections and some leaders belonging to his group have also fielded candidates.
The BJP has fielded Avneet Kaur, daughter of former Mayor Bhupender Singh, as the mayoral candidate from the Sikh community while the Congress is supporting Anshu Kaur Pahwa, also from the Sikh community, on the post. While Rajkumar Saini, Loktantra Suraksha Party chief, is supporting Seema Saini, the INLD-BSP alliance has fielded Priyanka Kashyap on the mayoral post.
“Panipat city has grown fast in the last 15 years because of the local industry. Lakhs of people shifted to the city from local villages and also from other states such as Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar and settled in various colonies. They have the voting right in the local MC elections and hence no party can dare to ignore them,” says Sanjay Bhatia, BJP general secretary.
The Chief Minister, while addressing a public meeting during campaigning for BJP candidates at Noorwala on Wednesday, said that all elections were linked with each other and the results of the municipal corporation elections would have a bearing on the parliamentary and Assembly elections next year.
Bhatia says that every election has its own agenda. The BJP is a cadre-based party and they are working at the booth level. Every election is important for them and they make full efforts every time, he adds.
Virender Singh ‘Bulle Shah’ says that the MC poll is an election of brotherhood and harmony and that’s why they are not contesting on the Congress symbol. All elections have different agendas, and usually candidates for the general and Assembly elections are also different, he adds. Mukesh Tuteja, a senior Congress leader, says that in this election, both image of the candidate and the party will matter. Around 128,000 voters are living in outer colonies of the city and no one can ignore them, he adds.
328,259
Total votes
128,000
Migrants' votes
Voters’ count
Punjabi (Arora Khatri) 85,000
Sikh 28,000
(including Ramgariya, Hyderabadi Sikh)
Jat 13,000
Brahmin 17,000
Baniya 30,000
Rod 4,000
Sunar 25,000
Kashyap 8,000
Saini 20,000
Sain 5,000
Dhobi 6,000
Jangra 6,500
Kumhar 7,000
Gurjar 4,000
Balmiki 20,000
Harijan 18,000
Muslim 15,000
Others 32,000
(Panipat Urban and Panipat Rural seats under municipal limits)
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