With less than a week until the end of the local body election campaign in Ghaziabad, the contesting candidates have resorted to frantic door-to-door campaigns to directly meet voters face-to-face in approximately 650,000 households as well as different markets and commercial areas, which have an officially estimated presence of approximately 42,000 shops and establishments within the municipal limits of 220sqkm.
On May 11, the district goes to the polls for the nine local bodies, which have 294 wards, 100 of which are under the jurisdiction of the Ghaziabad municipal corporation. The campaigning will end at 6pm on May 9, and the counting will occur two days later, on May 13.
According to official estimates, 12 women are running for the city mayor’s seat, while 667 others are running for the corporation’s 100 seats. In total, 1,837 candidates are running for mayor, chairpersons, councillor, and members in nine local bodies.
“Door-to-door campaigning is the most effective way of communicating with voters. I work hard daily, and the door-to-door run in residential areas and markets is 12-15km. On average, I cover as many as 3,000-4,000 households in various localities and about 1,000-2,000 shops in various markets,” said Samajwadi Party mayoral candidate Poonam Yadav.
“The campaigns begin as early as 7am and continue until late at night, with little time for lunch, etc. Then, when senior party leaders arrive, the road shows and public rallies will be resumed,” Yadav added.
The nine local bodies have a total population of 2,580,225, with approximately 59.67%, 1,539,822, present in the Ghaziabad municipal corporation’s 100 wards.
Ashwini Sharma, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s city unit spokesperson, said, “Our mayor candidate is also conducting extensive door-to-door campaigning, with daily runs of 15-20km in residential and commercial areas. She also meets people while travelling. Contact meetings with voters are held in different wards based on the requests of councillor candidates. The larger rallies have been organised for senior party leaders, such as the one on May 5 at Kavi Nagar Ramlila ground, where chief minister Yogi Adityanath will arrive.”
On the other hand, the Congress office bearers said that their mayoral candidate has 15-16 contact meetings with residents in various localities each day.
“We have no planned rallies or road shows, and most of our candidates are campaigning door-to-door, which has been effective even during the recent rainfall of three-four days. While going door-to-door, our mayoral candidate has 15-16 contact meetings with voters. We are attempting to cover as many wards as possible, but some may be overlooked due to the large area of the corporation limits,” said Lokesh Chaudhary, city president of the Congress.
During the most recent local body elections in 2017, 2,198 candidates ran for various local body positions. At least 808 ran for councillors in the Ghaziabad municipal corporation, with 13 women running for mayor.
BK Pandey, a Vaishali resident, said when candidates came to campaign in his neighbourhood, voters could ask them questions directly, which would not have been possible in a road show or a public rally.
Indirapuram resident Kuldeep Saxena said he preferred it when candidates came to his door instead of him having to attend rallies or roadshows. “Door-to-door campaigning allows for two-way communication between the voter and the candidate, whereas rallies and roadshows are one-way communication modes,” said Saxena.
