Sandeep Rana
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 3
A day before the final date for filing of nominations, the suspense over who will be the ruling BJP's candidate for the post of Mayor for the January 8 elections continues.
Sources said BJP national general secretary Dushyant Gautam arrived at the UT Guest House today. Gautam, who is also the Chandigarh BJP in-charge, had taken the views of party councillors and office-bearers in a one-on-one meeting on December 30 in the city.
Having consulted the party high command, he will declare the names of the party candidates for the posts of Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor tomorrow after which, the nominations will be filed by the trio.
Local BJP president and councillor Arun Sood, and councillors Shakti Prakash Devshali, Maheshinder Singh Sidhu and Ravi Kant Sharma remain the front runners for the post even as some other councillors as also in the race.
For the past few days, there has been a lot of talk about who will be the candidates. By pitching himself as a probable candidate, party chief Sood has reportedly brought "friction among councillors" in the open. Many councillors are against his plan saying that it will be against the "one person, one post" principle of the saffron party. However, those close to Sood feel there have been exceptions to this norm in the past. They believe since it will be the last Mayor of the current MC, it is important to have someone like him who can strongly raise issues with officers and is able to bring funds from the Centre for the cash-starved MC.
In the current MC, all four times when mayoral candidates were declared by the BJP, infighting came to the fore. In 2017, within days of getting elected as Mayor, Asha Jaswal and party leader Sood were blamed by fellow councillor Heera Negi for her defeat in the Famp;CC elections. In 2018, Jaswal, along with Sood and other councillors, filed separate nomination against Davesh Moudgil's candidature.
In 2019, Satish Kainth filed nomination in protest against Rajesh Kalia's name. He lost the poll and later joined the Congress. Last year, when Raj Bala Malik was nominated, Heera Negi criticised the move openly.
The front runners
Local BJP chief and councillor Arun Sood, and councillors Shakti Prakash Devshali, Maheshinder Singh Sidhu and Ravi Kant Sharma are the front runners for the post even as some others are also in the race.
Cong has already named its nominees
The city Congress had on December 31 declared councillor Devinder Singh Babla as its candidate for the Mayor's seat, while councillor Ravinder Kaur Gujral and Satish Kainth were declared party's Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor nominees, respectively. They will also file their nominations on Monday.
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