NEW DELHI: The city will witness a flurry of political activities in the coming weeks as major political parties have started preparing the ground for the municipal elections scheduled next year. The senior leaderships of BJP, AAP and Congress have been meeting grassroots workers and sympathisers as part of their strategy. Besides foot marches, demonstrations and symposiums, they have planned thousands of small meetings with limited presence of voters in the next four weeks.
The BJP, which has been in power in municipal corporations for three terms, will launch a mega public outreach initiative around September 15. It is expected to hold 11,000 meetings with people belonging to different groups. “Efforts will be made to hold regular dialogues with people from different walks of life. We will reach out to everyone. Party leaders will exclusively meet electorate from Uttarakhand, south Indian states and others, who are living and voting in the city. Another plan is to interact with 25 to 50 prominent city residents in small groups,” said Harshdeep Malhotra, general secretary of Delhi BJP.
The upcoming civic body polls are crucial for the three outfits. The BJP will fight tooth and nail to beat anti-incumbency while the AAP, ruling Delhi since 2013, will be making every possible effort to spread its wing. On the other hand, the elections will give an opportunity to the Congress to stay relevant in the city politics.
In an attempt to beat the odds, the Congress has also started holding discussions and seeking feedback to finalise candidates. The party has appointed independent observers for all 14 districts, who are MLAs from neighbouring Haryana. The observers have been meeting with ground-level workers and the process is likely to complete by September 9, said Shaktisinh Gohil, Rajya Sabha MP, who is in-charge of Delhi Congress.
“After receiving reports from all districts, we will sit together with office bearers and prepare the final list of candidates. Simultaneously, we will continue our outreach campaign. Instead of large public gatherings, the party is looking at small gatherings this time,” said Gohil.
The AAP has already been conducting several activities on the ground as announced by Gopal Rai, convenor of Delhi unit of the party. In September, the AAP will hold nearly 2,500 meetings in which party MLAs will interact with city residents to understand their issues.