Congress to contest UP civic polls solo

Congress general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday said that his party will contest the local body polls in Uttar Pradesh on its own.

While addressing a function here to mark the birth centenary of former prime minister Indira Gandhi, Azad said, "Our party will contest the forthcoming local body polls on its own."

He also urged the Congress leaders to be prepared and work hard to siphon victory in the upcoming local body polls in Uttar Pradesh.

There are 16 municipal corporations, 198 Nagar Palika Parishads and 439 Nagar Panchayats in UP.

In the 2012 polls, BJP won 10 of the 12 mayor seats that went to polls, 42 seats of Nagar Palika chairperson and 36 Nagar Panchayat chairperson seats.

At the event, the Congress leader also hailed his party's massive victory in the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha by-polls while recounting the failures of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"The Punjab Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat had been with BJP for last 10 to 15 years and now the Congress party has won it with a huge majority. All the BJP leaders, their Chief Minister and RSS tried their level best to defeat us. But when a person becomes determined then he can shake an entire nation," he said.

The Congress party on Sunday emerged victorious after defeating the BJP-SAD alliance in Punjab's Gurdaspur by-poll by a margin of 1.93 lakh votes.

The Lok Sabha by-elections, held on October 11, were necessitated after the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat fell vacant following the death of BJP MP Vinod Khanna.