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Journalism of Courage
Even as he keeps dashing to Gujarat to address rallies ahead of the state’s Assembly polls, as one of BJP’s star campaigners, UP CM Yogi Adityanath has launched the party’s canvassing for urban local body elections in his home state that are likely to be held in December-January.
Almost shuttling between two states in the past week, Adityanath has so far addressed Prabuddha Jan Sammelans (intellectual’s meets) in seven municipal corporations. He is scheduled to reach the 10 remaining municipal corporations before the announcement of dates for the civil polls.
On Sunday, the CM addressed one such *sammelan* in Ayodhya, where he launched 46 development projects worth Rs 1,057 crore, preceded by similar sammelans in Firozabad, Aligarh, Prayagraj, Jhansi, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur and Saharanpur, in which the CM unveiled and laid foundations of projects worth over Rs 5,880 crore in total. He will address one such sammelan in Agra today.
Through these meets, BJP is reaching out to the state’s intellectual class, including local medical practitioners, lawyers, teachers, traders, industrialists and youths. “Civic polls are held in urban areas and majority of the voters there are from the intellectual class. With these programmes of the CM, the BJP is reaching out to them, as they can influence others to vote for the BJP. The development projects being launched in these programmes are for the areas of municipal corporations as well as Nagar Palika Parishads and Nagar Panchayats in the same district concerned,” said a BJP leader.
Nagar Palika Parishad cover urban area of comparatively less population and Nagar Panchayats are in small urban town with lesser population than Nagar Palika Parishad] in the same district concerned,” said a BJP leader. In these meets, the CM is elaborating on the infrastructure development his government has done in the concerned municipal areas over the past five years. He is also promising more development in coming years. In Firozabad, he released a book on the achievements of the municipal corporations and unveiled a coffee table book in Jhansi.
That leader said that after the civil polls’ schedule is announced, the CM and his two deputy chief ministers will hold such public meetings in other Nagar Palika Parishads and Nagar Panchayats as well.
In the meanwhile, the CM has addressed six rallies and led two road shows as a star campaigner in the Gujarat assembly polls so far, and is expected to campaign more before polling. Earlier, he had addressed 16 public meetings in Himchal Pradesh too.
Winning the urban local body polls is important for the BJP in view of 2024 Lok Sabha polls. “Results of civic polls will send a message among voters ahead of Lok Sabha polls. BJP won majority in UP Assembly but it faced challenge from the SP-alliance on ground in the 2022 Assembly polls,” remarked a BJP leader.
Apparently for the same reason, BJP has paid a special focus on Varanasi municipal corporation that falls within the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The party has also named Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya as in-charge for the Varanasi municipal polls. Maurya held the first meeting with local BJP leaders for local body polls in Varanasi on Saturday. Sources said Maurya has been asked to interact with local functionaries and ward in-charge at least every third day.
The UP urban local body polls are likely to be announced over the coming days, and held next month. There are 763 urban local bodies in the state, including 17 Municipal Corporations, 200 Nagar Palika Parishads and 546 Nagar Panchayats.
When civic polls were last held in 2017, 652 urban local bodies including 16 Municipal Corporations, 198 Nagar Palika Parishads and 438 Nagar Panchayats, containing 11,995 wards in total, had gone to the polls in different phases. EVMs were used for the polling in the municipal corporations and the BJP had won 14 mayoral seats, with the BSP clinching the other two—Aligarh and Meerut.
BJP had also won the right to select the chairpersons for 58 Nagar Palikas and 94 Nagar Panchayats, compared to BSP’s 22 in Nagar Palika Parishads and 41 in Nagar Panchayats. The SP had, in contrast, managed only 37 Nagar Palika Parishads and 78 Nagar Panchayats, but failed to win any mayor body. Congress candidates had won as chairpersons in seven Nagar Palika Parishads and 17 Nagar Panchayats.
To stay focused on the forthcoming civic polls, BSP is staying away from the ongoing Lok Sabha and Assembly by polls. The SP leadership, which is busy with the Mainpuri Lok Sabha and Rampur Assembly bypolls, has appointed its MLAs as observers for elections in the municipal bodies.
