2012 civic polls will see at least three citizens’ candidates

Hansel D’Souza,president,Juhu Citizens’ Welfare Group said the process will take the country closer to better governance. “In the last elections we only had Adolf who was willing to stand against political muscle power and later battle it out in the murky world of politics and politicians. But four years and much success later,there are so many citizens who have come forward and agreed to contest the elections as citizens’ candidates,” said Hansel.

While members of the JCWG have already identified the two new wards,in addition to the existing ward 63 in Juhu from where Adolf was elected,they do not want to reveal the names just yet. “If we reveal the areas from where we plan to contest,the political heavyweights will try to sabotage any chances of us winning. Moreover,three wards is the minimum. We are in talks with other citizens’ groups across the city and our aim is to have able and popular citizens’ candidates from at least 10 corporator wards,” said Hansel.

Hansel,the second citizen’s candidate,contested the 2009 state Assembly elections against Congress MLA Ashok Jadhav. Though he lost the elections,he managed to get over 10,000 votes.

The citizen’s candidate is chosen by Area Sabha Respresentatives of a particular ward. Each ward has one ASR per 1,000 voters. Adolf was elected by 32 ASRs from his ward of nearly 32,000 voters. The model was conceptualised and developed in 2002 by NGOs across the country.

Ruben Masceranhas,a young ASR in his early twenties,said efforts have begun to generate large-scale public support. “We are trying to rope in both the middle class segment of voters as well as slumdwellers to vote for our candidates. Slumdwellers have been the first beneficiaries of all the good work that took place under Adolf right from zero flooding in slums of Prem Nagar and Moragaon,completion of the Irla pumping station and education for over 400 slum children,” said Ruben.

The process is now on to zero in on the three candidates. “We are considering electing women candidates too since 50 per cent has now been reserved for female candidates,” said Hansel. “Our goal is to give a complete makeover to our existing system of governance. These are tiny steps that we are taking towards that ultimate goal,said Ruben.