Punjab BJP gears up for municipal polls in four megacities

New Delhi: Keeping municipal corporation elections of four megacities in mind, BJP Punjab has started preparations for the urban polls. Recently, Local Bodies Minister Inderbir Singh Najjar announced that Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Patiala will go under Municipal Corporation elections in January. Jiwan Gupta, General Secretary of Punjab BJP, said: “We are preparing for the corporation polls. Punjab BJP will take up local issues in this corporation election”.
BJP functionaries have been told to corner both previous Congress and present the AAP government in local polls. “Crores of rupees were dispersed by the central government for the smart city project in Ludhiana, but both the Congress and AAP misused the funds. We will take this issue to public and will ask questions to both the political parties,” Jiwan Gupta said.
BJP is accusing AAP of harassing the public. “Ludhiana corporation has said that all buildings without map or plan approval will be announced illegal and under this, the corporation is asking for huge money as fine from people,” said the BJP leader. In Patiala, BJP will take up issues of incomplete projects. “Where they have started working on various projects and dug the street for pipeline and other projects, those places are still dug and nothing is completed well,” accused Sukhwinder Kaur, BJP leader from Patiala. “They have left the project on ‘Vaddi Naddi’ incomplete and we will take this issue in public,” said a BJP leader. The saffron party in Punjab is accusing Congress of mismanagement. The majority of the seats in these corporations are won by Congress. After AAP came into power, it was seen that many leaders from Punjab BJP and Congress joined AAP.
Recently, four councillors from BJP joined AAP in Jalandhar. After the Assembly elections, a huge chunk of councillors from Congress and BJP joined AAP in Amritsar. Before the Sangrur Lok Sabha byelections, various leaders from BJP joined AAP in the presence of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
Last week, 15 councillors from the Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and some Independents joined AAP in Kharar. This triggered a change in the leadership of the House. The Sunday Guardian spoke to a senior BJP functionary to know how BJP will manage the political migration of its leaders. “I know various leaders have left us and this trend is not new. Before the Assembly elections, amid farmers’ protest, various workers and leaders ditched us,” said a BJP leader.
According to Punjab BJP, till date, around 192 leaders have left the party and the majority of them were workers and small leaders. “Except Anil Joshi, no big face has left the party,” said the BJP leader. In August last year, Anil Joshi, a tall BJP leader and ex-minister in the Akali government, joined the Akali Dal and in the 2022 Assembly polls, he was given a ticket from Amritsar North by SAD. Joshi accused BJP of being an anti-farmer party. “He was a traitor and many others who have betrayed the party are also traitors. But it is for the good of the party, that now we know who will stand with the party and who was there for power,” said a BJP leader.
According to the BJP leadership, around 5000-6000 new members have joined the party in the last year. Last year before Assembly elections, Rana Gurmit Sodhi, Fateh Jung Bajwa and Balwinder Singh Laddi, all sitting MLAs from Congress, joined BJP. Later, after the Punjab Assembly elections, former ministers Raj Kumar Verka, Balbir Singh Sidhu, Sunder Sham Arora and Gurpreet Singh Kangar joined the BJP. Recently, former CM of Punjab Captain Amarinder Singh also joined the saffron party. Observers think that Sikh faces like the Captain in BJP will help the party make inroads in rural Punjab.