Party leaders say the Congress is facing the ire of disgruntled candidates for having fielded outsiders in some of the city’s municipal wards.
The heat for the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) election is increasing as voting day - October 10 — approaches.
The wards have turned into battle grounds for the BJP, Congress, NCP and independent candidates who have started their campaigning in earnest.
On Friday, the Congress had to face the public's ire — or may be it was their arch rival party's political strategy — when citizens in Rakhial, India Colony and Madhupura welcomed them with signboards on their colony gates that read: 'Congress members do not come for campaigning here.'
Residents and political leaders in the party say the Congress is facing the anger of disgruntled candidates for fielding outsiders in some of the wards or it could be a conspiracy by their chief rivals like National Congress Party (NCP), who have also fielded 85 candidates for the election.
"We were told to stay away from the area when we went to campaign in Thakorvas in Madhupura, which is home to city mayor Kanaji Thakore. But we went there nevertheless and the mayor's sister-in-law welcomed us," a Congress candidate in the Madhupura ward said.
The candidate, however, claimed that when they started talking to people, the latter said that the BJP has not done any development work in their area in the last five years and so they did not want politicians to come to their ward and make false promises.
Similarly, when candidates in the India Colony and Rakhial reached certain colonies and chawls, the candidates were shocked when they read boards stating, 'Congress members should not enter our societies to campaign.'
The reason for this apparent dissatisfaction is said to be the work of candidates who have been denied tickets. "All these things are being done by disgruntled Congress members as outside candidates were given tickets. Moreover, both the Congress candidates from minority pockets in Rakhial are from the same belt and so the other belt in the ward with a Hindu population is not happy as the only Hindu candidate is from outside the ward," said an observer in Rakhial.
The buzz in the ward is also that because of internal disputes, the Congress party may go on to win the situation, because NCP has fielded former Congress corporator Ratna Vora's panel.
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