The city has been witnessing a lot of political activity with the notification for election to the Junagadh Municipal Corporation (JMC) due to be made public on June 29. Political parties, particularly the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, have already begun the exercise of selecting the candidates for 51 seats accommodated in the 17 wards.

According to the party leaders, the list of candidates will be declared on July 2, a day before the filing of nominations.

Besides BJP and the Congress, other parties, including the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Nationalist Congress Party and a local organisation are also in the fray. This has worried the BJP and the Congress as they fear it might hamper their poll prospects.

Karsan Dhadook, Junagadh city BJP unit president, said: “The party has received over 350 applications for tickets. The state leadership has already begun an exercise in this regard. Three observers from the state BJP are camping here for three days and have heard the aspirants and the various units of the party.”

According to Dhadook, tickets will be only allotted to candidates with a clean image. Tainted persons or those with questionable loyalties will not be considered.

“We have already carried out ward-wise survey in this regard. The final decision regarding the allotment of tickets will be taken up by the BJP Parliamentary Board,” he said.

Pravin Tank, Junagadh city Congress president said: “We have received over 200 applications for tickets. The state leadership heard all the aspirants individually on June 25 and 26.”

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