BJP eyeing next year’s MCD elections, plans 11,000 small gatherings in 3 weeks
Keeping in mind the municipal elections in the national capital next year, the BJP plans to hold over 11,000 meetings with various sections of the society by the end of this month.
Elections to the three Municipal Corporations (MCDs) of Delhi will be held in April next year. The BJP is in power in Delhi’s municipal bodies since 2007.
Delhi BJP general secretary Harsh Malhotra told IANS that from the second week of September, the party plans to hold over 11,000 meetings by the end of the month.
“During the meetings, our leaders will interact with different sections of the society such as women, youth, scheduled castes, professionals, people from Uttarakhand, South India and others. The meetings will take place in small groups of around 25 to 50. Key people from these groups ,” said Malhotra.
To win the support of slum voters, who traditionally vote for the Congress and now support the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the BJP has planned small meetings in these groups from the second half of this month.
“From September 15, we will start holding small meetings of 50 to 100 people in slums. The plans will be finalized in the next few days,” Malhotra said.
As part of the preparations, the BJP has formed committees at over 8,000 polling stations in the city.
“Out of 13,789 booths in the city, we have formed 21-member committees at over 8,000 booths,” he said.
About a fortnight ago, 14 prominent leaders of the party’s state unit, including Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta, spent the night with people in different parts of the city.
The BJP also accused the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government of stalling civic works for not releasing funds to municipal corporations.
“The Kejriwal government is not allowing the MCD to do their basic work by not releasing the dues,” Malhotra alleged.
In next year’s MCD elections, the BJP faces a tough challenge from the AAP, as well as a thrice anti-incumbency wave.
In the last municipal elections in 2017, to negate the anti-incumbency wave, the saffron party had refused to give tickets to all the sitting councillors.
However, the BJP is yet to finalize the candidate selection formula for the next municipal elections.
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