EC to release final list today, BJP, INLD candidates in fray, Cong set to field Independents

GURGAON :The Election Commission officials will, on Friday, release the final list of candidates for the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) elections that are scheduled to take place on September 24.

According to sources in the Election Commission (EC), three candidates have been barred from contesting the elections.

A total of 283 prospective candidates had filed nominations for the MCG elections.

The list of candidates is significantly lower this time around. In the 2011 elections, 378 candidates had contested the election.

The 2017 list contains candidates named by the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD).

Both parties put out their lists of candidates earlier this week.

Congress had won the 2011 MCG elections bagging 15 seats. The BJP could only garner four seats.However, in a dramatic turn of events, Rao Inderjit Singh, who was with the Congress, switched his allegiance to BJP.

A large number of councillors, loyal to him, also defected to the saffron camp.

Short on experienced candidates this time and battling an internal rift on whether to contest the polls on the party symbol, the Congress decided against allowing nominees to run on the party symbol this year.

Citing the declaration of the poll date at a ‘short notice’ and lack of preparedness, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), too, has decided to give this year’s polls a miss. A senior leader in Gurgaon Congress revealed that the decision to not allow any candidate contest on the party symbol bodes well for the party, as it would allow them to field more ‘independents’ in every ward and boost their winning prospects.

“While we have decided against fielding any candidate on the party symbol, we have been allowed to field more independents in the election. The decision may prove to be a masterstroke, as, after the election results are declared, some of the winning (Congress-backed) independents could switch back to the party,” a senior Congress leader in Gurgaon said.

› While we have decided against fielding any candidate on the party symbol, we have been allowed to field more independents. The decision may prove to be a masterstroke.

SENIOR LEADER, Congress