Shimla MC elections: Stakes high for both Congress, BJP
SHIMLA: The May 2 Shimla municipal corporation elections hold a lot at stake for the ruling Congress and the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with the key rivals eyeing to score a win in the oldest civic body of the country.
While the Congress hopes to wrest the SMC, once a stronghold of the grand-old party after a gap of 10 years, the BJP is making all-out efforts to retain the ground it won in 2017.
The Shimla MC polls are being held after a delay of over one year. The first election to SMC was held in 1986. Sukhu himself remained an elected councillor of Shimla MC twice in 1993-98 and from 1998 to 2003.
The five-year term of the SMC ended in June last year, but the elections could not be held due to court cases challenging the delimitation of wards which had been increased from 34 to 41 by the previous BJP government.
The election is a prestige battle for chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and also the first test of his popularity after being chosen for the top post in December last year.
So far, the four-month tenure of the government has been a mix of hits and misses and the CM is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that his party wins back the civic body it lost a decade ago. Till then a Congress fortress, the Shimla MC was breached by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) when Sanjay Chauhan and Tikender Singh Panwar were elected the mayor and deputy mayor in the first and the only direct elections to the MC.
Soon thereafter, the Congress formed the government in the state and returned to the old system of choosing the mayor and deputy mayor amongst the elected councillors.
However, it did not benefit the Congress and BJP made inroads into the Shimla MC in the 2017 elections by winning 17 out of 34 wards while Congress won only 12. Independent candidates won four seats and one went to CPI-M.
One seat short of a majority, the BJP, however, was to get control of the civic body by getting elected its mayor and deputy mayor candidates for the first time in the history of Shimla.
With the battery of Congress ministers and MLAs having hit the campaign trail in different wards, Sukhu has been highlighting the ‘pro-people decisions’ his government has taken in the past five months. The Congress is also hopeful of getting the people’s support in view of the strong anti-incumbency against the BJP-ruled MC.
On the other hand, the BJP has gone full-throttle in the election campaign, trying to corner the Congress government over its ‘failure’ in fulfilling the public guarantees it had promised before the assembly elections.
Former CM Jai Ram Thakur and Shimla Lok Sabha MP Suresh Kashyp, who was removed from the party chief in the midst of the election, have been at the forefront of the election campaign even as the BJP saw a leadership change with
Rajeev Bindal returning as the state party president after three years. While the party is hopeful of Bindal, known for his organisational skills, to make a turnaround and lead party to the victory, the infighting in the saffron party may mar its prospects. The BJP has pitted its top rung leaders into the campaign.
Union minister Anurag Thakur himself held road shows in Shimla and Congress’ general secretary in-charge Rajeev Shukla himself is camping in Shimla to oversee the party’s campaign. State party chief Pratibha Singh herself has taken to roads to improve the prospects of the party. The elections also hold a lot at stake for Pratibha Singh under whose leadership the Congress won the elections.
The Aam Aadmi Party, which left the campaign halfway through the assembly elections to focus on Gujarat, is also contesting elections in 21 wards, while the CPI-M is contesting only on four seats.