Strategy shift for civic polls: Parties in Gujarat opt for debutants to ensure victory

Political parties have drastically overhauled their candidature strategy for the upcoming elections to local bodies in the state, dropping a majority of incumbent members in favour of new candidates.As many as 4.2 crore voters of the total 4.4 crore voters in the state will exercise their franchise to elect representatives for 10,000 seats of 15 municipal corporations, 84 municipalities, 34 district panchayats, and 260 taluka panchayats. Voting will be held on April 26. BJP, which enjoyed an overwhelming majority in all six municipal corporations for which elections will be held (the remaining nine municipal corporations are going to polls for the first time), has replaced about 70% of all its sitting councillors. New, younger faces have been fielded in all the civic bodies. Congress too has given tickets to about 50% of the candidates who are relatively younger. Although the party had a meagre presence in the six municipal corporations where elections are being held, it has opted not to field the same candidates again in most cases, instead choosing workers from Youth Congress and NSUI. The drastic change in fielding candidates for the AMC election can be gauged from the fact that BJP has dropped the mayor, deputy mayor, a former mayor, the chief whip of the party in the AMC and the leader of the ruling party in the civic body. Chairpersons of almost all civic committees have been dropped as well, with the party repeating only 37 of its 162 councillors in the AMC. In Surat, BJP has dropped more than 50% of its sitting councillors although the saffron party repeated its mayor, standing committee chairman, and deputy mayor. Sources said the average age of BJP and Congress candidates for the SMC election is 45 years, while it is around 40 years for AAP candidates. In Vadodara, BJP has fielded only 16 of its 66 sitting councillors, dropping former mayors, former deputy mayors, and a former standing committee chairman. "The party's criteria of not giving tickets to persons who were older than 60 and the change in reservations in constituencies led to many losing tickets," said a local party member involved in selecting candidates. A similar pattern has been seen in Rajkot. BJP held a commanding majority of 68 in the 72-member civic body. Only 23 of the sitting councillors have been given tickets again, and party sources said that 45 fresh faces have been chosen to contest the election for the Rajkot Municipal Corporation.