Congress starts preparing for civic body polls

With the Delhi Municipal Corporation’s polls scheduled to be held in January 2017, the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee has started preparing for the elections. At present, the three MCDs are being ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The Congress, which was routed in the last Assembly elections but won five out of 13 seats in the civic body polls has already appointed 203 block-level presidents and the list of another 72 block presidents would be announced in the next week. Of these, as many as 150 are new faces, sources said.

According to sources, the names of 203 appointees have been proposed by the party top brass that they might be the Congress’ face in the upcoming civic body polls.

The man behind the preparation is none other than state party president Ajay Maken. His main focus is to build the party at the grass-root level. It is an uphill task, considering the fact that the party could not win a single seat in the last Assembly polls. Its biggest challenge would be to first keep the house intact and then win back their traditional voters.

“These are not mere appointments. Every day, they are being tasked to run door-to-door campaigns on various issues,” said a Congress senior leader. He added that the party’s main agenda would be to highlight corruption in the civic body and the state government.

The party would also focus on water and power. The block presidents are staging demonstrations and protests in areas hit by power and water crisis, he added.  Sources said, Maken was personally guiding and monitoring all 203 block presidents.