Parties begin preparations with focus on door-to-door campaigning for Uttar Pradesh civic polls

With the focus on door-to-door campaigning, political parties in Uttar Pradesh have plunged into preparation mode for the upcoming municipal elections.

Scheduled to be held in November and December, the polls will test the poll preparedness of the parties and give them an opportunity to prove their mettle in the run-up to the 2024 general elections.

According to the government, there are 438 Nagar Panchayats, 199 Nagar Palika Parishads and 17 Municipal Corporations in Uttar Pradesh.

The last elections to the urban bodies were held in October-November 2017 when the BJP had won 14 of the 16 mayoral seats while the BSP bagged two -- Aligarh and Meerut.

Later, Shahjahanpur was also given the status of Municipal Corporation, due to which the total number of municipal corporations in the state increased to 17.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has set its eyes on capturing all 80 seats in the state in the 2024 elections, state media in-charge Manish Dixit told PTI.

We are taking the urban body elections very seriously and treating them on par with the general elections. A meeting of the in-charges and co in-charges of every urban body of the state was held on Saturday to prepare an action plan, Dixit said.

As part of the 'Har Ghar Abhiyan' campaign, the BJP will visit every household and seek people's support, he added.

Dikshit said the BJP registered a comprehensive victory in the recent assembly polls in the state and will repeat its performance in the civic polls.

BJP's state president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary, state in-charge Radha Mohan Singh and organisation general secretary Dharampal had recently prepared a strategy for the elections at a virtual meeting with the party's district presidents, district in-charges and conveners of civic elections, he highlighted.

Meanwhile, the focal point of the main opposition party -- Samajwadi Party (SP) -- will be ground level management, its national spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said.

SP president Akhilesh Yadav had appointed the in-charges in all municipal areas about two months ago and the organisation is working at the ground level to win these elections, he said.

The in-charges have been appointed at the booth level and after the work of delimitation and reservation of municipal areas by the State Election Commission, the selection of SP candidates will also be done by early next month, he added.

In view of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the urban body elections would be fought very intensely, he stressed.

Although there is a difference between both the elections, the level of preparedness and popularity of the the party among the masses will definitely be gauged by the results of these polls, Chaudhary said.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which was annihilated in the assembly polls winning just one seat in the 403-member state assembly, is keen to make a strong comeback through the urban body elections.

As part of the 'Har Ghar Dastak' campaign, the party will take the ideology of Bhimrao Ambedkar, BSP founder Kanshi Ram and other Dalit leaders to the people, a leader said.

We had launched a membership drive on June 1. Now, we are focussing on connecting the people with the BSP's ideology and several other campaigns will be launched soon, he said.

On the other hand, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will use the same strategy with which it achieved electoral successes in Delhi Punjab in the civic polls in Uttar Pradesh.

Party's state spokesperson Vaibhav Maheshwari said the AAP has started the process of selection of mohalla in-charges in the state.

The party has also prepared a mobile application to report the problems of the mohallas. Through this application, the party will get information about major problems of every locality and on the basis of them, the election manifesto will be issued for every locality, Maheshwari said.

He said that the party would also release a consolidated manifesto for the urban body elections.

The party is brainstorming on whether to completely waive the house tax for houses up to 600 sq ft and halve the house tax for houses up to 2000 sq ft if we come to power, he said.

We are also contemplating to completely abolish water tax and all these points will be included in our manifesto, he added.

Maheshwari stressed that the tickets will be given to only those party workers who have a "clean" image.

The party has invited applications. After 10 days, the process of releasing of names of candidates is likely to start, he said.

The Congress, which is arguably going through its worst phase in Uttar Pradesh, is looking to make a fresh start by planning to spring a surprise in the elections, party's media in-charge Lalan Kumar said.

As the party's new state president Brijlal Khabri and his associate provincial presidents have taken charge, the preparations for the civic polls have begun in full swing, he said.