Congress, BJP gearing up for Shimla corporation polls

Shimla, Dec 13 (UNI) The Himachal Pradesh unit of the Congress and the BJP have initiated the process of selecting their candidates for the Shimla Municipal Corporation elections that are a few months away, party sources said.

Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president Viplove Thakur has written a letter to the Shimla Urban Congress president Arun Sharma to begin the selection process of the candidates.

On the other hand, the BJP has shortlisted 250 candidates for 25 wards in Shimla and the list would be forwarded to the party high command, the sources said.

The BJP has forwarded the names of 10 candidates from each ward to the high command, while the Congress has initiated the process for the formation of ward and booth level committees in preparation for the elections, sources said.

Since the corporation elections are taking place almost an year before assembly elections that are due in 2008, the stakes were high for the both the Congress and the BJP.

The Shimla assembly seat has been a traditional BJP stronghold, but in the last elections, it finished a poor third in a troangular contest that saw CPM taking the second slot.

The Congress, which has 16 corporators in the outgoing council, was trying to regain its hold, while the BJP would try to put up a united front during the elections, in preparation for the assembly polls.

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