Chandigarh MC polls: Curtains on campaigning, stage set for three-cornered contest

The pulsating campaign for the 2021 Chandigarh municipal corporation elections ended on Tuesday, making way for the 72-hour “silence period”, which will end at 5pm on December 24.

Voting is scheduled for December 24 and results will be out on December 27. The State Election Commission will complete the election process by December 30.

In a departure from previously established two-party battle between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, Chandigarh is set to see a three-cornered contest, with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also entering the fray from all 35 wards.

While the AAP was first off the blocks by announcing a slew of “guarantees”, the BJP closely followed up with the release of its “achievements” list.

The Congress, which entered the campaign mode rather slowly, made good of the lost ground quickly as the canvassing window neared its end.

The last day saw the candidates taking out “padyatras” and door-to-door campaigning, though a few also organised public rallies.

With no major untoward incident or grave personal mudslinging, the one-month campaign went off peacefully.

But despite the election commission setting strict Covid guidelines in place, most candidates flouted the safety protocols unabashedly.

Even in the backdrop of rising Covid cases in the city, political parties continued to gather large crowds as they went for show of strength over public health.

Issues-based campaign

The BJP, striving to retain the MC House majority, made “development” and its “achievements” in the last six years as its main campaign planks.

The grand old party, having lost three successive elections to the BJP, based its campaign on anti-incumbency factors, stressing how the saffron party “failed” the City Beautiful.

Meanwhile, the AAP, after getting a drubbing in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and contesting its first MC polls in Chandigarh, centered its campaign around the “Delhi Model”.

The bluntest attack on the ruling party came on the issue of the city slipping sharply in the Swachh Survekshan rankings. Both the Congress and the AAP targeted the BJP for not resolving the issue of Dadumajra dumping ground, poor running of solid waste processing plant and ill-managed door-to-door garbage collection in the city.

In turn, the BJP blamed the Congress for the city’s garbage woes, particularly, the dysfunctional garbage processing plant. It also questioned AAP’s track record in cleaning up Delhi’s garbage mounds.

General inflation, hike in water tariff and “high” garbage collection charges were other issues that opposition parties prominently raised.

On Congress’s poll promise of “no new taxes”, the BJP countered stating that “such financial indiscipline by the Congress during its multiple terms” led to MC financial issues and forced it to hike some levies.

The AAP was attacked on the freebies it announced. Both the Congress and the BJP dismissed these as either unworkable or unsubstantial.

For instance, on AAP’s guarantee of “free water supply up to 20,000 litres per month”, the parties contended that this cost only around ₹40 per bill cycle in the city. “In Delhi after the free slab, the next slab is ₹24 per kilo litre,” claimed leaders of both the parties.

After AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal’s rally, Congress and BJP’s attack on the “Delhi Model” and “guarantees” became shriller.

Big guns for big push

All three parties roped in “star campaigners” during the last one month.

AAP’s campaign was kick-started with Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia’s interaction with city residents and peaked with Kejriwal’s public rally in Sector 43.

Party’s Punjab chief and MP Bhagwant Mann, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and eight party MLAs also campaigned for it.

Congress’s star campaigners included Kanhaiya Kumar, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Kumari Selja and Randeep Singh Surjewala. Manpreet Badal, Raj Kumar Verka and Mohinder Singh Kaypee were party’s prominent Punjab faces who pushed its campaign in the city.

Delhi’s Alka Lamba and Himachal Pradesh’s Rajinder Rana also played key roles in campaigning.

Twelve star campaigners through their 56 public rallies canvassed for the BJP candidates, in addition to door-to-door campaigns. Union ministers, including Som Prakash, Piyush Goyal, Ajay Bhatt, Nityanand Rai and Anurag Thakur held multiple public rallies. Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Himachal chief minister Jai Ram Thakur and Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari were also in the city to back the saffron fold’s candidates.