Shimla MC Poll: Parties trying to woo electorate till last moment
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Shimla, May 1 – Candidates and their loyal workers continued to reach out to voters though mobile phone and the social media ahead of the Shimla municipal polls on Tuesday.
The votes would be counted on May 4.
The election campaign formally ended at 5 PM on Sunday.
Sanjouli Chowk is among high profile municipal corporation wards where sitting Mayor of BJP Sataya Kandaul is in the fray against the Congress candidate Mamata Chandel. The direct one to one contest between the two is posing a major challenge to the BJP veteran. The Congress and the BJP are engaged in one-to-one fights in nine other wards.
There is a triangular contest on 16 wards and four-cornered fights in seven and six-cornered battles in one ward.
In a dramatic development on late Sunday night, the son of a BJP candidate was booked by the police for carrying four bottles of wine in his vehicle on the dry day of the election. However, BJP has denied the allegation. Two clippings of the alleged incident and release of the BJP candidate’s son by the police have gone viral/
The pollsters consider that BJP is likely to perform better in 24 wards where the contest is not bipolar and many candidates are in the fray. ” If there are a number of candidates in the fray mostly AAP, CPI(M) and independents, BJP is comfortably placed to give a tough fight to Congress. However, Congress has the edge in the direct contests.
After losing the recent Himachal Pradesh assembly election, BJP wants to retain the Shimla Municipal Corporation as it came to power in the civic body for the first time in 2017 since its establishment.
BJP opted to change the state party president Suresh Kashyap in the midst of the poll campaign this month by bringing in Rajiv Bindal . Currently, BJP does not have any high-profile leader in Shimla district after the death of former Minister Narendra Bragta and the defeat of BJP minister Suresh Bhardwaj in assembly elections. BJP is trying to galvanize its party cadre and also relying on former CPI-M leaders to win the election. BJP has nominated Shelly Sharma from Summerhill and former SFI leader Vishal Thapta from Engineer.
Including 54 women there are total 102 candidates – 34 each from Congress and BJP, 21 from AAP, 4 belonign to the CPI(M) and 9 independents.
State Election Commission Anil Khachi said there are 149 polling stations. 16 wards are reserved for women and three for Schedule caste and tribe. For Congress, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri, Party President Pratibha Singh, Industry Minister Harshvardhan Chauhan and Education Minister Rohit Thakur were the star campaigners.
Union Minister Anurag Thakur, former Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, former minister Sukh Ram Chaudhary, state party president Rajiv Bindal and former Minister Suresh Bhardwaj were the star campaigners for BJP candidates.
