AMRITSAR: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will independently contest all 85 wards of the Amritsar Municipal Corporation (AMC) and adopt a strategic approach aiming to secure victory by leveraging the support of former Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leaders who have recently joined the saffron party in Amritsar.BJP Amritsar district president Harvinder Singh Sandhu said on Monday that the party was fully prepared to contest all 85 wards of the AMC and they had conducted rehearsals for the election process twice to familiarize their workers with the intricacies of the electoral procedures and the conditions they might encounter during the AMC elections.Notably, the elections to the municipal corporation in Punjab were to be held by November 15 but in the recent past the state election commission announced to postpone the elections since the electoral rolls are not prepared .Sandu claimed that the BJP workers, right from panna pramukh (head of a page of electoral rolls having 30 voters) were actively engaged in election preparations and had spared no effort in ensuring the partys triumph.In the AMC, there are several wards traditionally dominated by the SAD and the BJP is relying on Akali turncoats, such as former SAD district president Gurpartap Singh Tikka and his team of trusted former Akali leaders, who have recently joined the BJP. The party believes that these leaders will play a crucial role in securing victories for BJP candidates in these wards.However, in exchange, the BJP has had to make compromises with its own candidates and field individuals suggested by Akali leaders," said a source in SAD who didnt wish to be quoted.The BJP is yet to announce the names of its candidates for the AMC elections.When asked about the potential impact of leaders like Raj Kumar Verka, a former Congress member who switched to BJP and later rejoined Congress, and has a significant impact on Amritsar West assembly constituency, Sandhu responded, "Our focus is on strengthening the organization (sangathan). If our organizational structure is robust, the actions of turncoats wont matter, nor will they influence the public mindset during elections.

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