Countdown begins for mayoral poll in Panipat

The countdown for the voting to elect the new Mayor of the city has begun, but the low voter turnout in the recent civic polls has raised tension among the political parties, forcing them to make plans to request voters to come out of their houses on March 9 — the polling day.

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The campaigning for the Panipat Municipal Corporation (MC) elections would end on Friday evening. While the BJP has pushed all bigwigs in the electoral campaign in support of its candidates, no senior Congress leader has come to Panipat so far to campaign in support of even its mayoral candidate.

A total of four candidates – BJP’s Komal Saini, Congress’ Savita Garg, AAP’s Preetpal Khera and independent candidate Kewal Singh — are contesting the elections for the mayoral post.

The BJP has fielded 26 candidates in all 26 wards here, but the Congress has allotted party symbols to only 20 candidates and has supported six independent candidates here.

Meanwhile, the low voter turnout in the recent civic body elections, held on March 2, has alarmed leaders of the ruling party as well as the Opposition in Panipat also.

Notably, the Sonepat mayoral bypoll held on March 2 recorded the lowest voter turnout of 28.8 per cent, while in the adjoining Karnal MC polls, it recorded a total of 48.8 pc turnout.

In Faridabad, the voter turnout was 40.09 per cent and in Gurugram, it was 41.9 per cent. But the political parties didn’t want to take any chance in the Panipat MC polls and these parties, especially the ruling BJP, has begun plans to urge the voters to come out of their houses on the polling day here to exercise their voting right.

Union Minister and former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar also held a meeting with the party leaders and party workers and asked them to work hard to reach every voter.

On Thursday, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini had addressed a "Panna Pramukh" sammelan in Panipat and told them to bring maximum voters to the polling booths on March 9.

Apart from it, Education Minister Mahipal Dhanda, Development and Panchayat Minister Krishan Lal Panwar, Minister Dr Arvind Sharma, former MP Sanjay Bhatia, MLA Panipat Urban Pramod Vij are already campaigning in support of the BJP mayoral candidate Komal Saini and councillors’ candidates.

Dushyant Bhatt, BJP district president said the BJP was contesting on all 27 seats – Mayor and 26 councillors – and the Congress was standing nowhere in the MC elections in the city.

“Though we are going to win all seats, we don’t want to take any chances, that’s why all party workers and leaders are working hard for the party to win,” Bhatt added.

Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Thursday motivated the "panna pramukhs" and gave a mantra to improve the voting percentage. The duties of all "panna pramukhs" have been assigned to improve the voting percentage on March 9, he said.

Senior Congress leader Varinder Kumar Shah ‘Bulle Shah’ said the Congress was fully prepared and contesting the elections with full strength.

The MC polls were for harmony and brotherhood and the Congress was contesting for the first time on symbol, he said. Congress’ mayor candidate Savita Garg had visited all wards in the Panipat Rural and Panipat City assembly area, he said. The low voter turnout was the failure of the BJP’s government because people had been fed up with it and they did'nt come out to vote, Shah claimed.