BJP on its toes for Gandhinagar civic polls

Looks like the BJP has adopted an interesting strategy to ensure its victory in the first election of Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation (GMC). The party has roped in ministers in the poll campaign and given them ward-wise responsibility to ensure maximum voting in favour of BJP.

It is believed that the party, which was not much bothered by the outcome of the district panchayat elections, is taking this poll seriously. One of the ministers in the state government, on the condition of anonymity, said, "Soon after the assembly session was over, we were given ward-wise responsibility. Now we are organising meetings with people and contacting them in the respective areas given to us."

BJP spokesperson, Jagdish Bhavsar said, "The party has given responsibility to six leaders for the GMC elections. They are: I K Jadeja, chairman of Swarnim Gujarat celebration, state education minister Ramanlal Vora, state minister for forest and environment Mangubhai Patel, Radhanpur MLA Shankar Chaudhary, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) Natuji Thakor and Kaushalya Kunwarba. As this is the first election of GMC, BJP has done scientific planning like any other election. Every cell has started working actively for the party's victory in the election."

"Also, ministers, MLAs and party workers from Ahmedabad have been assigned for the campaigns and various programmes," he added.

Another minister said, "We have to talk to people on different issues, as the capital city is already well-developed and its citizens don't have big issues that can be considered   election issues. So, we are promising people that we will develop the city further."

He added, "The psyche of the voters in Gandhinagar is totally different from other big cities with municipal corporations including Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara. So, we need to approach them with a different strategy."