Alliance to form a panel to reach out to ‘core voter’ of every party

Ghaziabad: The INDIA bloc will form a coordination committee to canvass for Dolly Sharma, who has been nominated by Congress as Ghaziabad candidate for the alliance.Dolly finished a distant third behind VK Singh of BJP and Suresh Bansal, who was an SP-BSP alliance candidate, in the 2019 polls. This time, with the alliance dynamics being different and BJP replacing Singh with Ghaziabad MLA Atul Garg as its candidate, the feeling is that the fight for the seat that BJP has always won will be closer. Dolly on Saturday met the local Congress brass as well as Samajwadi Party and Aam Aadmi Party functionaries in Indirapuram. Chandrashekhar Azad’s Azad Samaj Party will also back Dolly, who will file her nomination papers on April 1.“An introductory meeting of workers and district leaders of political parties of the INDIA bloc and other opposition parties was organised in Indirapuram on Saturday. A coordination committee, which will comprise all parties supporting Congress, will be formalised in a day or two. The committee members’ selection was discussed at the meeting,” Dolly told TOI.SP’s district president Faisal Hussain said two committees would, in fact, be formed that will work in tandem. “One will work in the assembly segments of the Lok Sabha constituency and the other will be a central committee. The constituency committee will look into logistics and other details and will work under the supervision of the central committee,” he said.Asked about joint rallies by the central leadership, Hussain said, “There is every possibility that a joint rally by Congress, SP and leaders from other parties of the alliance will take place either at the district level (Ghaziabad) or at the division level (Meerut). Star campaigners from both parties will also seek support for alliance candidates.”AAP’s Sachin Sharma said booths where AAP is strong will lend support to the Congress candidate and in booths where SP is strong, it will do the same. “Party workers have been instructed to ensure that their core voters come out and vote for the alliance candidate,” added Sharma. The Ghaziabad seat has over 3,000 booths.“It is the first time since 2009 that the opposition has come up with a joint strategy, at least on paper. If it works for Dolly, it will give a tough fight to the BJP candidate,” said political analyst Jay Dixit.BJP dominated the vote share in Ghaziabad both in 2014 and 2019. In 2019, BJP’s vote share in the seat was 62% while in 2014, it was 56.5%.