After Assembly bypoll boost, AAP hopes to clear municipal election test next in Punjab, its first since making entry into state
Congress had won all five municipal corporations which vote on December 21 in 2018, when elections were held last. BJP faces its first civic polls without an ally. For SAD, the fight to remain relevant continues
The momentum is showing in its municipal poll efforts, with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann telling a recent meeting of party workers to “work hard and touch every single voter” in the campaign. (File) THE STAKES are high for all political players in Punjab as the state heads for its first municipal elections after the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) entry into Punjab politics in 2014, and its subsequent rise to power since. The last polls for five municipal corporations and 43 municipal councils, which are going to polls on December 21, were held in 2018.
Punjab has 13 municipal corporations. Eight of these went to polls in February. The remaining five — Patiala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Phagwara — will vote on December 21. All five were won by the Congress in 2018.
The AAP is going into the elections with hopes high after the November bypolls saw the party winning three of four Assembly seats — Chabbewal, Dera Baba Nanak and Gidderbaha. The momentum is showing in its municipal poll efforts, with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann telling a recent meeting of party workers to “work hard and touch every single voter” in the campaign. The “good work” done by the AAP government should reach the people, Mann said, mentioning its schemes such as free power and the setting up of mohalla clinics.
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