With municipal polls process underway, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Nagpur unit has started its election campaign with full force. Its city unit chief has already chalked out an elaborate plan. At the helm of this plan is ‘Chowk Sabha’. The party is already holding various activities to tell the public achievements of 11 years of Modi Government. ‘Chowk Sabha’ is the at the centre of that activities. City BJP Chief Dayashankar Tiwari, in an exclusive interview with ‘The Hitavada’, revealed how these ‘chowk sabhas’ will turn out to be the poll campaign meetings. Tiwari paid a courtesy visit to ‘The Hitavada’ office on Friday and interacted with ‘The Hitavada’ management and editorial board.

 

Considering the possibility of delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies, BJP had already decentralised power, abolished Assembly constituency-wise mandals and created mandals of 100 booths each. At present, there are six mandals--South West, West, North, East, Central and South. Each mandal used to have 400 or 500 booths. Now, these Assembly constituency-wise mandals have been replaced by a system of 100 booths- a mandal. It means one Assembly constituency will have four such mandals. “In each mandal, we will hold 23 ‘chowk sabhas’ and all four ex-corporators will address those sabhas.

 

They will not only let people know of the national schemes and other services started by Central Government but also the development works done at local, prabhag and ward levels. With no municipal election held in last three years, our connect with people has taken a beating. Through these ‘chowk sabhas’, we will re-establish that connect,” elaborated Tiwari. With one constituency having four mandals, the BJP will have 80 chowk sabhas in one constituency. Through these many sabhas, the party is planning to reach major chunk of people in one constituency. Explaining the plan further, Tiwari said, “These meetings will be addressed by corporators, ward presidents and other office-bearers as per the convenience. The corporators will tell people about the works held in city during the BJP regime in the municipal corporation and the individual work they have done. Ward Presidents or Mandal Presidents will tell the welfare schemes floated, development works done at national and state level.

 

Along with this, the account of works, services brought by the MLA or MLC concerned in that constituency too will be presented. We are taking out books of the works done by BJP at national level, local level, state level which are to be distributed among citizens. Our effort is that all our corporators will attend all the meetings. “We did not limit the programmes of Ahilyadevi Holkar to party level. We approached private coaching institutes, asked our Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) to go among the students and let them know about the great queen. We not only told public the stories of Ahilyadevi but also informed them about the good governance that she had brought which matches with what Modi Government has applied.” Managing Director Rajendra Purohit welcomed Tiwari and offered him a bouquet.

 

Associate Editor Rahul Dixit, BJP functionary Brijbhushan Shukla were present. Non-committal to ticket-seekers When asked how he would face the challenge of flow of ticket-seekers during municipal polls, Dayashankar Tiwari said that he never commits to anyone and never say no. The strategy of exporting our candidates to our alliance constituents that we used in Assembly polls will not work in corporation elections. On the seat sharing with alliance parties, Dayashankar Tiwari made it clear, “The decision will be taken at State-level. But primarily, it has been decided that the existence and strength of the alliance partner will be considered. We will analyse the party’s winning chances and accordingly, the seat sharing will be done.

 

In Nagpur, Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have only one seat each and both the candidates are with Maha Vikas Aaghadi. These things will be taken into account while going to polls.” ‘Besa-Beltarodi can become mpl council’ Besa-Beltarodi is rising and a lot of development has been done there. It is being demanded to incorporate the area in municipal corporation but according to Dayashankar Tiwari, the BJP City President, the Besa-Beltarodi may become municipal council. Hingna, Wadi also were made municipal councils. On the same lines, Besa-Beltarodi can be given the status of municipal council.