Shahjahanpur to get its first mayor ever after ULB polls

Whoever wins in the urban local body polls from Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh will create a history of sorts by becoming the first mayor ever of this municipal corporation.

Shahjahanpur became a municipal corporation in 2018, a year after the last ULB polls were held in the state. And this time, it has been reserved for a female candidate from the Other Backward Classes.

The BJP has fielded Archana Verma as its mayoral candidate and its main rival the Samajwadi Party has given ticket to Mala Rathore. The SP initially declared Verma as its candidate but she joined the BJP later.

Both the parties have campaigned in favour of their candidates for the polls set to be held on May 11.

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"Campaigning has been good and I am confident of winning. The core issue in this election is development," Verma told PTI.

Asked why did she leave the SP after being declared its mayoral candidate, she said, "People in the SP had formed factions and they were hatching a conspiracy to defeat me."

Rathore too appeared confident of her win, saying she received a "good response from people".

Asked whether Verma joining the BJP at the last minute will impact her confidence or that of the SP workers, she said, "Why will it happen? People are with me and they are extending their support to me."

Altogether, there are eight candidates in the fray, including from the Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Aam Aadmi Party. More than 3.2 lakh voters are eligible to vote in the polls, according to EC officials.

For Shahjahanpur residents, development seems to be the main issue.

Vikas Khurana, HoD (History) at the Swami Shukdevanand Post Graduate College, listed some of the issues they want the parties or their candidates to address this election.

"There is virtually no green cover in the city, it should be increased. We have demanded that an electric crematorium be set up here. We have also sought relief from inflated water tax and house tax. There are encroachment on roads and massive jams due to an increase in the number of vehicles," Khurana said.

Shweta Mishra, a medical practitioner, said finding ways to compensate the loss by businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic, women employment, health facilities and girl child education make up the poll issues.

Anoop Trivedi, an advocate, said development will dominate the poll as no one would like to see the pace of progress made by the city in the last few years going down.

Amit Sharma, a businessmen, and Mohammad Tariq Khan, principal of Gandhi Faiz-E-Aam College, also said the main issue in the civic polls is development.

Shahjahanpur is a key urban local body and constituency as three ministers in the UP government are associated with the city — Finance and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna, PWD Minister Jitin Prasada and MoS (Independent Charge) Co-operative Department JPS Rathore.

Asked about Verma jumping from the SP to the BJP, JPS Rathore said the opposition party is "unable to control" its candidate. "If anybody is coming to (our) party, what can we do... Why are they blaming us for their incompetence?"

He claimed Verma was trying to join the BJP since the ULB polls were announced.

"Without her consent, they (SP) declared her name for the post of mayor," he said.

The minister asserted that the BJP's performance this time will be better than the 2017 polls.

However, Mala Rathore said despite three UP ministers campaigning for the BJP candidate, she will get the support of people and "it does not make any difference" to her.