Phagwara hopes to get elected MC House by end of December

After the announcement by Punjab government about holding elections to the local bodies, Phagwara residents now hope to get an elected Municipal Corporation by the end of the year. Political parties including the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiromani Akal Dal and Bahujan Samaj Party are keen on contesting the MC elections.

Though leaders of all parties are exuding confidence about gaining a majority, the main contest is likely to be between the Congress, AAP and BJP. Phagwara MLA Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal, former minister and AAP leader Joginder Singh Maan are actively working so that their respective parties could win the MC elections and wrest the seat of Mayor.

Phagwara MLA Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal along with prominent Congress leaders is actively working to bring all partymen on one platform. Despite claims of unity, the BJP could be seen divided in two different factions led by former Union ministers Vijay Sampla and Som Parkash. Both factions can use their political strength to defeat the candidates of their rival groups.

AAP too suffers from factionalism with the two groups led by former minister Joginder Singh Maan and Santosh Kumar Gogi. District Planning Board Chairperson Lalit Saklani, Improvement Trust Chairman Kashmir Singh Malhi, Market Committee Chairman Tawinder Kumar and Ashok Bhatia were seen in one camp opposite the Maan group.

The SAD led by Ranjit Singh Khurana and BSP have started their activities in Phagwara. Though the term of Phagwara Municipal Corporation was over in March 2020, no elected MC could be elected even after four years of the expiry of its term with the result that bureaucrats were calling the shots in the absence of elected representatives. The ruling AAP is divided into two factions headed by defeated MLAs.

The old group is led by Santosh Kumar Gogi, who lost the assembly elections in 2017 while the other is led by former minister Joginder Singh Maan, who was denied a Congress ticket in 2022 and joined the AAP and contested assembly elections from Phagwara, but lost. Deep factionalism in AAP had become a hindrance in holding MC elections which is already behind schedule.

As work on delimitation of wards could not be completed yet, a proposal was sent to the Local Bodies Department but due to extra-ordinary delay in the delimitation work, MC elections would now be conducted according to old delimitation.