Gujarat Local Body Elections: Congress Offers Fresh Hope
Gujarat Local Body Elections Congress Powers Youth, Women to Fight Corruption
Upcoming local self-government elections: Congress is fully prepared. A digital QR code has been launched for interested candidates
State President Shri Amit Chavda and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Dr Tushar Chaudhary
- From 11 March to 20 March, meetings will be held across Gujarat to meet people who wish to be Congress candidates in the upcoming local self-government elections at the municipal corporation, municipality, district and taluka level, listen to them and prepare a panel.
- People who want to contest in municipal corporations can apply by scanning a QR code.
- We will give 50 per cent of the seats to young people to contest the elections.
- Congress has decided to give proper representation to young people, women, SC, ST, OBC and all sections of society in the coming elections.
- If we want to change the situation in the state, good, educated and honest people must come forward in public life. Congress is ready to give a strong platform to such people so they can work for people-centred and transparent administration.
- During the Jan Aakrosh Yatra, many complaints about corruption in local bodies across Gujarat have come out, and people now want change.
- After a large number of fake voters were removed from the voter list, surprising results will be seen in the coming municipality and municipal corporation elections.
President of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee, Amit Chavda, said at a press conference held today at Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan that elections for local self-government bodies in Gujarat will be held soon. Because of the delimitation process, these elections were delayed, but now preparations for elections across the state have reached the final stage.
Across Gujarat, elections will be held for 15 municipal corporations with 1,044 seats, about 1,084 seats in 34 district panchayats, 5,214 seats in 262 taluka panchayats and about 2,596 seats in 83 municipalities. In this way, elections will be held for about 10,000 seats in about 95 per cent of the state.
Congress has completed its preparations at the organisation level, keeping these elections in mind. At the taluka, city, ward and district level, party workers have gone among the people and built contact. In big cities, under the “Congress Aapke Dwaar” programme, people’s problems were heard and a process has started to prepare the manifesto based on the people’s suggestions.
For many years, there were scams in the Gujarat voter list. After the new delimitation, about 70 lakh voters’ names have been removed, which makes it clearer that there were bogus and duplicate voters in the earlier lists.
At present, the Bharatiya Janata Party is in power in most of the local self-government bodies in the state and corruption and bad administration have increased in these bodies. The system has failed to provide basic facilities like roads, water, cleanliness, traffic control, pollution control, education and health. Public tax money is being misused, and people are troubled.
For people who wish to be candidates in the 15 municipal corporations of Gujarat, an online system has been started to apply through a QR code. By scanning the QR code, candidates can fill out the form with their details. After that, from 11 to 20 March, they will meet in person, and a panel will be prepared.
In local self-government bodies, 50 per cent of seats are reserved for women, and some seats are also reserved for SC, ST and OBC communities. So, capable women and people from backward communities are also requested to come forward and file their candidature.
Under the guidance of national Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and in-charge Mukul Wasnik, the party has decided to give chances to young people below 50 years of age for 50 per cent of seats in the coming local self-government elections.
Leader of the Congress Legislative Party, Dr Tushar Chaudhary, said that Congress held the “Kisan Aakrosh Yatra” in Saurashtra and the “Jan Aakrosh Yatra” in North, Central and South Gujarat. During these yatras, in about 50 days, a journey of 5,000 kilometres was completed, and direct contact was made with people in about 28 districts and many talukas and towns.
During this whole tour, people made many complaints that they are facing heavy corruption at all levels – in municipal corporations, municipalities, district panchayats and taluka panchayats. People also said that even before work is approved, discussions take place between BJP leaders and office-bearers about how much share they will take from the work. Because of such corruption, development work has stopped, and local bodies have become centres for the BJP to collect funds.
In the voter list correction process, about 73 lakh 73 thousand votes have been reduced in Gujarat. In the 2022 elections, the difference between the BJP and Congress was about 80 lakh votes. Now, with such a large cut in votes, this difference has reduced a lot. In about 23 Assembly seats in Ahmedabad and Surat city, between 47,000 and 1.94 lakh votes have been reduced. On the Chief Minister’s Ghatlodia seat, about 97,000 votes have been reduced, and on Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi’s seat, about 85,000 votes have been reduced. In his view, this cut was due to bogus voters in the past, and because of this, surprising results may be seen in the coming local self-government elections.
This time, Congress is also preparing to declare the likely mayoral candidates in some cities in advance so that voters have a clear leadership choice. Based on the feedback received so far, Congress will enter all these elections in a strong way.
At the press conference held at Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan, Ahmedabad City Congress President Sonalben Patel, Media Convener and Spokesperson Dr Manish Doshi, Media Co-convener and Spokesperson Shri Hemang Rawal, Spokesperson Dr Amit Naik and other leaders appealed to citizens of the state, social leaders and workers to join Congress and come forward in public life to fight against corruption, to establish people-centred administration and to ensure transparent governance.
