With just 48 hours to go before the filing of nominations starts for the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram elections, the Congress is yet to decide whether it wants to contest the polls on the party symbol and the Bharatiya Janata Party faces the mammoth task of short-listing deserving candidates from 700-odd applicants.
Though Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar and several other party leaders are advocating the party should break the age-old tradition and contest the municipal polls on the party symbol, they face opposition from a section within the Congress.
Arguing his case, Mr. Tanwar said the party was in power for almost six decades and never contested the local elections on the party symbol but the situation today is different and there is need for the Congress to strengthen itself at the grassroots level.
“It is an opportunity for the party to both strengthen itself at the grassroots level and also provide the electorate an alternative to express their anger against the misrule of the BJP,” he said.
Conceding there was disagreement on the issue, he said the final decision will be taken soon after consultation with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
35 wards
The ruling saffron camp, which holds all four Assembly segments in the Gurugram Lok Sabha constituency, has already constituted a screening committee to short-list candidates for the 35 wards.
BJP leader G.L. Sharma said the candidates will be screened based on the period of their association with the party and the positions held by them. He added that the party receiving more than 700 applications so far for the 35 wards — an average of 20 candidates per ward — proved there was a wave in favour of the BJP.
He said the party had initiated several development works such as construction of flyovers and underpasses at three major intersections on the National Highway and there was a proposal to extend the metro network in the city that had faced discrimination during Congress rule.
Mr. Sharma, who is the chairman of the Haryana Dairy Development Co-Operative Federation Limited, said the party will also unveil a vision document for its plans for development of the city. Taking a dig at the Congress, Mr. Sharma said the party has already accepted its defeat as it went back on its decision to contest the polls on the party symbol.
The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), which has also decided to contest the elections on the party symbol, is expected to announce its list by the weekend. Senior INLD leader Gopi Chand Gehlot said the election committee will meet on Thursday evening to scrutinise the applications and the list will then be sent to the high command.
