Poll date not yet out, parties gear up for mayoral contest

Shiv Kumar Sharma

The date of the election to the Municipal Corporation, Yamunanagar-Jagadhri, is yet to be announced, but prospective candidates for the post of Mayor of all political parties have already started preparations. Many of them are lobbying hard to get the party ticket while others are contacting voters.

Yamunanagar district has four Assembly seats and all are represented by BJP MLAs — Jagadhri by Haryana Assembly Speaker Kanwar Pal Gurjar, Yamunanagar by Ghanshyam Das Arora, Sadhaura by Balwant Singh and Radaur by Shyam Singh Rana. Interestingly, this Municipal Corporation (MC) has been carved out by adding areas from three of the four Assembly constituencies, excluding Sadhaura. 

The BJP may chose the candidate for this important post from among district party president Mohinder Khadri, former Senior Deputy Mayor Pawan Bittu, Sangeeta Singhal, Rakesh Tyagi, Madan Chauhan and Ramniwas Garg. Rajesh Sapra, district general secretary of the BJP, says that the mayoral election is important. The BJP is taking it seriously and has formed a district election organising committee, which will finalise the name of the mayoral candidate and make the poll strategy.

“Haryana Urban Local Bodies Minister Kavita Jain and Yamunanagar MLA Ghanshyam Das Arora have been made the election in charges for the municipal election,” says Sapra.

He adds once the election date is announced, the mayoral candidate will be finalised immediately. Most of the senior Congress leaders, who have contested the last Assembly elections or may seek ticket to fight the next Assembly poll, don’t want to fight the Mayor’s election. Rather, they are lobbying to ensure their staunch supporters get the ticket.

“Senior Congress leaders are afraid that if they lose the Mayor’s election, their chances of getting ticket for the Assembly elections will be affected,” says a Congress leader.

The Congress is a divided house with leaders owing allegiance to the factions led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Kumari Selja, Ashok Tanwar and Randeep Singh Surjewala. But the group of Rajya Sabha member Kumari Selja is the strongest.

Senior Congress leader Satpal Kaushik says that the direct election to the post of Mayor is a good step of the Haryana Government to reform local urban bodies’ elections. 

The INLD and its alliance partner BSP are keeping mum on the MC election. District president of the INLD Dalmira Ram Saini says that, “They will talk about their alliance strategy at an appropriate time”.

The corporation with 45 villages has 22 wards in Yamunanagar and Jagadhri.