Madhya Pradesh Local Body polls: BJP, Congress look hard for winnable women candidates Mayoral post

BHOPAL: While 50 percent seats in local bodies have been reserved for fairer sex, both BJP and Congress would find it hard to identify winnable women candidates from mayoral posts and Bhopal is no exception.

Both the parties are having a handful of women leaders who are having winning capacity in Bhopal municipal corporation elections for mayoral position.

With the completion of the reservation allotment process of the local bodies’ elections, the aspirants have started lobbying for the posts of mayor and Nagar Palika and Nagar Parishad presidents.

There are 16 municipal corporations in the state and the mayor posts in some of the civic bodies weigh more than elected MLA or MP as this post is directly related with the public and also provided ‘huge budgetary allocation’ on the development works.

The ruling as well as opposition parties are eying on the prestigious seats of the Bhopal municipal corporation mayor. However, the two parties are in a fix as they do not have much choice when it comes to the women candidate.

For BJP, winnability of candidate is the key criterion; but the Congress looks blank and clueless. “Yes it is true that we are not having the ‘so called prominent name’ for the mayoral post in Bhopal, but the party will give the ticket to a candidate on the sole basis of the winnability,” said BJP spokesperson Rajnish Agarwal while talking to Free Press.

Presently the name of MLA Krishana Gour is making rounds, but the other names are also coming forward, said Agarwal, adding that the names of the corporators may be considered for the post but the party will assess the winnability of the candidate..

The Congress media coordinator Narendra Saluja named former mayor Vibha Patel and DCC women wing president Santosh Kasana for mayoral post. However, accepting that there were not many women leaders in the party, Kasana said, “The leaders who are in the limelight are not from OBC and in Bhopal we need a shining star candidate to give a tough fight to the BJP candidate from the OBC category.”

While the dearth of women leaders is a challenge before the BJP, the party has also to keep in mind that all castes coming under OBC get proper representation. Considering the reservation charter, the party wants to satisfy all the OBC castes while selecting the candidates. The party will have to keep in mind the domination of a particular caste within the limits of corporation.