Political parties of the coal city are upbeat about the upcoming Dhanbad Municipal Corporation elections. The schedule for the polls has not been announced yet, but that hasn’t stopped them from gearing for elections.

Several political parties including, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Marxist Coordination committee have even announced their candidate for the post of Dhanbad Mayor which is reserved for Other Backward Caste. Congress party and BJP are yet to reach consensus for the post of mayor in Congress.

Notably, in Congress at least two heavy weight candidates, including former Animal Husbandry and Fishery minister, Mannan Mallick and state executive committee member party, Shamsher Alam have already publicly announced their plan to contest for the mayor’s post.

However, Brajendra Prasad Singh, district president of Congress during a meeting of party workers at Bhandaridih of Katras on August 24 called for consensus for all posts, including 55 posts of councillors and post of Mayor to ensure the party’s victory during the upcoming Municipal Elections.

“Though, elections will not be held on party lines but we should together to ensure the victory of party supported candidates in order to strengthen the party organization,” said Singh.

Mannan Mallick who was also present during the meeting appeared to have mollified his stand. He maintained that despite having expressed his desire to contest the election for the post of mayor he will abide by the party instructions if any and will not impose his decision.

Shamsher Alam, who also contested for the post of mayor during the last elections (2015) and secured over 50 thousand votes to remain on second position, however he appealed to the party seniors to sacrifice and rather appealed them to contest for the post of MP and MLA in order to realize the dreams of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

BJP’s former mayor, Chadrashekhar Agarwal, who had secured a landslide victory by securing over 90 thousand votes during the last election of 2015, is yet to announce his plan to contest elections but there are indications of him contesting the elections. Another leader of the saffron party Bhrigunath Bhagat also announced his plan to contest municipal elections for the post of mayor.

In a related development, former Nirsa MLA, Arup Chatterjee today announced that the former councilor of Ward Number 36, Rustam Ansari will contest for the post of Mayor from Dhanbad during the upcoming elections. His party Marxist Coordination Committee has expressed confidence in Ansari on the basis of the good work done by him between 2010 to 2015.