Date out, AAP yet to finalise candidates
Sanjay Bumbroo
Tribune News Service
Mohali, January 17
Even as the State Election Commission has announced the date for the MC poll in the state, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is yet to finalise its candidates for the forthcoming elections in Mohali.
According to information, around three-four persons each from 23 wards have shown interest in contesting the elections and approached the party high command in this regard. The party will hold a survey to finalise the candidates within the next few days.
Confirming the same, AAP district president Parminder Singh Goldy said they would hold a survey regarding the winning capability of candidates as three-four persons each from 23 wards have applied for the ticket for the Mohali MC poll. The party would release the list of about 50 per cent candidates within a day or two.
Goldy said they had finalised and released the list of 14 and six candidates for 17 wards of the Lalru and Kurali Municipal Committees, respectively. He said the remaining candidates would be finalised within the next few days.
Goldy said this was for the first time that the party would be contesting elections for the Municipal Committees in Lalru, Kurali, Kharar, Zirakpur and Dera Bassi and the Mohali Municipal Corporation. He said as traditional parties, including the Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), had failed to fulfil the promises, people would now be voting for the AAP for the development of Mohali city as well as other towns in the district.
The SAD had already announced its candidates for 28 wards of the Mohali Municipal Corporation.
The elections would be held in 50 wards with an estimated 2.36 lakh voter base in Mohali city. The former councillors of the Congress and the SAD have already started highlighting their achievements on social media.
Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, who floated a splinter Akali group, Shiromani Akali Dal (Democratic), in July, had decided not to contest the elections and instead support AAP candidates in all municipal committees and Municipal Corporation elections in Mohali district.
The civic body is elected for a period of five years. The previous five-year term ended on April 26 last year. In the 2015 elections, 27 councillors, including 10 from the Azad group, 14 from the Congress and two Independent councillors, had elected Kulwant Singh as the mayor. Later, in August 2017, Kulwant joined the SAD.
Meanwhile, former Superintendent of Police (SP) Sarabjit Singh Pandher has announced to contest the elections from Ward No. 14 on the AAP ticket. The former cop started campaign by holding a public meeting in his ward.
