Candidature not yet announced, aspirants start MC election drive

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, November 24

Though the political parties are yet to announce their official lists of candidates for the forthcoming elections to the Municipal Corporation (MC), probable candidates have begun canvassing in their respective areas.

This is the first time that some of the aspirants are posing themselves as probable candidates and started full-fledged canvassing before the official announcement.

Announcing themselves as the right choice of their respective parties, the candidates have installed posters in every nook and corner of their respective wards.

Interestingly, some of the prominent leaders, including former Senior Deputy Mayor Kamaljit Bhatia and former Leader of Opposition Jagdish Raja, whose wards have now been reserved for women candidates, have also installed posters of their better halves announcing them as candidates. Interestingly, these posters though carry the photograph of the woman candidate in a corner, these have the photographs of their husbands and also the area MLA prominently. “My husband has made numerous records of developments works in the area. I will walk on the path shown by him,” reads the poster of Jaspal Kaur, wife of SAD leader Kamaljit Bhatia in Ward No. 45.

While calling themselves as a sewadar, majority of these women candidate have even flashed their educational qualification as well on the posters.

Contrarily, other aspirants have simply put hoardings of their photographs with folded hands. More interestingly, the lust for power has even forced some couples to paste joint photographs across the area to show them as a happy couple and desire to bring the much needed ‘badlaav’(change) in the ward.

Why delay?

With over six principal secretaries of the Local Bodies Department changed in the last six months, the election process got a huge setback across the state. With a lot of discrepancies found in the newly-approved delimitation plan of the city, the district administration is finding it a herculean task to finalise the voter list. Until it gets finalised, the government cannot announce the election date. Also, without the official announcement of the election date, the political parties are hesitant to announce their election candidates from various wards.

While the SAD, the BJP and the Congress have maintained silence over the delay in the official announcement of candidates for the municipal elections, sources say the candidates who were given a go ahead from their party high command ‘silently’ have installed their probability posters in their areas.