Bhopal Civic Poll Campaign Hits New Shrill
Bhopal — Gaining in strength and decibels the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) civic poll campaign has now hit a deafening pitch in the state capital, with candidates firing in all cylinders to ensure last minute gains, some 24 hours before campaigning for the Dec 11 ballot comes to a close on Wednesday.
While BJP candidate Krishna Gaur is widely accepted to be the favorite for the mayoral position, analysts do not negate possibilities of a last minute turn-around in favor of Congress’ Abha Singh, who after a relatively slow start seems to have bounced back into the contest over the last couple of days.
They add that this time around the contest may well be decided by damage control devices rather than electoral pull and say that the party with better fire-fighting capabilities may emerge victorious, as both the Congress and the BJP have faced criticism and dissent from within their ranks since the distribution of party poll tickets.
Miffed over being denied party tickets several rebel candidates — both from the Congress and BJP — are in the fray and threatening to hijack party campaigns in many of Bhopal’s 70 Municipal segments.
Drawing first blood, the city BJP unit has already expelled several rebels for a period of six years. The Congress, however, is yet to initiate disciplinary action against the rebels, who just might hold the key to power in Sadar Manzil after results are declared.
