It has been four days since the nomination process for the Delhi Municipal Corporation elections began and till Thursday, not a single candidate from any party was nominated. The Congress did announce the names of some candidates, but the two main parties, which are to be contested, have not yet decided the names of the candidates. It has been told by the BJP that 15 thousand people have applied for two hundred and fifty seats and the party is conducting an internal survey so that the candidates can be decided. Big leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party are also taking time out from campaigning in the Gujarat Assembly elections and scoffing at the names of the candidates.
Think, though there are four days for the enrollment process to end but there are two days off and only two days to enroll. This week it is Friday and next week Monday is one day left. This is the first time that after the notification of the election is issued, the Bharatiya Janata Party has approached the Election Commission asking it to allow filing of nominations on holidays i.e. Saturdays and Sundays. However, the commission denied this. It was evident from the efforts of the BJP that the party has not yet finalized the names of the candidates.
The question is that only after getting the green signal from the central government, the announcement of the election was made, then why did the BJP not prepare in advance? The point of the rest of the parties is understandable as they had no idea that the elections would be held so soon and with the Gujarat Assembly as the notification of delimitation of seats had not been issued. It can be expected that the BJP will be aware of when the notification is to be issued. The Central Government suddenly issued the notification of delimitation and soon after that the Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi declared the elections.
It is clear from this that the BJP was also not ready for the elections. Then the question is whether the Delhi Municipal Corporation elections are being held in the first week of December because of the Gujarat Assembly elections? Informed sources say that the decision was taken after receiving the feedback of the Gujarat Assembly elections. In Gujarat, the Aam Aadmi Party is becoming increasingly popular and its support is increasing. At first it was only making a dent in the Congress vote, but with freebies, they have attracted the poor and backward in a big way. At the same time, its agenda of Hindutva has also gained popularity among the urban middle class. For this reason, it was decided to elect MCD along with Gujarat so that Kejriwal could be stopped in Delhi.
