Candidates reach out to voters in Ahmedabad

With the civic body polls round the corner, political parties and independent candidates are leaving no stones unturned where campaigning goes. Although the final picture regarding the contestants in the fray for the 192 seats of 64 wards of the AMC will be clear only after scrutiny of nomination and withdrawal of forms, major political parties have started campaigning in full swing.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) convened an introductory meeting of its candidates at Agrawal Bhavan on Sunday morning. Party leaders provided candidates guidance regarding the campaign.

The saffron party has asked candidates to consider wooing dissidents in the wards as their first priority, as it forms part of their damage control exercise. Moreover, the candidates have been asked to campaign only in groups in the wards, and not by themselves. Interestingly, the candidates have been asked to convene community meetings only in the presence of their fellow candidates, so as to avoid a setting with any rival candidates of the same community, said sources.

The leaders also advised the candidates to meet and seek blessings of the senior leaders of Jansangh and former MPs, MLAs, Corporators and other leaders in their wards. In the second round, the candidates will meet prominent and influential people in their ward who may not be active in the party but believe in its ideology.

The election offices of both the Congress and the BJP have begun functioning in almost all wards of the city. Many candidates have started taking rounds of the wards and attending group meetings. In some areas such as Vasna, the BJP also organised a rally before officially inaugurating the election office.

All political parties will focus on public meetings in the last round. The BJP has planned public meetings of chief minister Narendra Modi in three parliamentary constituencies on September 30, while the Congress is yet to take a call on public meetings of its leaders.

Although, the BJP has not yet declared its manifesto, it is likely to focus mainly on development-oriented politics. However, the party will also raise issues such as the alleged misuse of CBI by the Congress and corruption in Common Wealth Games (CWG) whenever needed, said sources in the BJP.