Last Update: May 17, 2023, 21:05 IST
Delhi Chief Minister and party’s national convenor Arvind Kejriwal (centre) and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann with newly elected Jalandhar MP Sushil Kumar Rinku, in New Delhi on Sunday. (Twitter)
Elections to the four municipal corporations of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Patiala are due soon and the Bhagwant Mann-led Punjab government has started preparing for the elections.
After its success in the assembly elections in Punjab and the recently held Lok Sabha bypolls, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has now turned its attention to elections to the state’s urban bodies, including the prestigious business hub Ludhiana.
Elections to the four municipal corporations of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Patiala are due soon and the Bhagwant Mann-led Punjab government has started preparing for the elections.
AAP is targeting these civic bodies as they are under the control of the Congress.
In Amritsar, Patiala and Jalandhar, where elections were held in 2017, the Congress trounced all other parties. The results of the elections held in Ludhiana in 2018 were similar with a victory for the Congress led by Captain Amarinder Singh.
The government will soon approach the State Election Commission to prepare the election schedule. The government has started meeting local officials to take stock of the preparations. The Local Government Department has started the exercise of delimitation in wards.
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With a huge urban electorate expected to vote in these municipal elections, AAP is trying to focus on that target audience keeping in mind next year’s Lok Sabha polls. “These areas are urban centers and the party wants to establish a connect with the urban voters. A good performance in these elections will ensure that the party is able to capitalize on this segment ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
The party is buoyed by the recent success in the Jalandhar parliamentary bypolls, but appears to be mindful of the fact that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), contesting alone for the first time after two decades, registered an impressive performance. , One leader remarked, “The party realizes that the BJP has a strong connect with the urban voter and wants to make inroads into it.”
To gain an upper hand, the party is already considering an ‘urban voter-centric move’ to woo voters.
The ruling party in Ludhiana and Jalandhar is exploring the possibility of a major amendment in the policy on illegal colonies. The amendments were aimed at regularizing plots in unauthorized colonies where construction has taken place by December 31, 2022, but sale agreements were executed before March 19, 2018. Conduct during the Jalandhar parliamentary by-election.
Ahead of the upcoming elections, the local bodies department has started delimiting wards in the form of municipal corporations and municipal towns.
As per its political requirements, the ruling party may go for delimitation of wards in the respective Municipal Corporations.
