Cong to ask state govt to allow parties to contest in civic polls

Ranchi: AICC's Jharkhand in-charge Ghulam Ahmed Mir said that the party would formally request the state govt to conduct the municipal elections under party symbols. The Jharkhand high court on Jan 16 directed the state govt to conduct the long pending municipal elections within four months.The Grand Old party held a consultation meeting over the delayed municipal elections and the upcoming state budget in Namkum on Sunday. "Elections are likely to be held without party symbols. But we will request the govt to conduct the polls in such a way that political parties can contest it under their symbols. If that does not happen, we will support candidates who align with our party ideologies," Mir said. "We will also have to create a mechanism whereby we can win the maximum seats, especially in the constituencies where we did not perform well in the recently concluded assembly elections," he added. Mir also told the state Congress leadership that the party would continue to press for the fulfillment of its seven guarantees which it had promised to the electorate before the assembly polls. "One of our guarantees, the Maiyya Samman Yojana, has already been fulfilled. This has boosted the credibility of the party and the govt among the people," he said.Fresh after its electoral victory in the last year's assembly election, the Congress state leadership on Sunday asked its workers and office-bearers to implement the resolutions which had been passed in its Udaipur convention three years ago. "We have to fill up all the vacant posts and rope in new technology and apparatus to keep pace with the other parties. All these have to be implemented this year itself," state Congress chief Keshav Mahto Kamlesh said.