BJP leaders skip nomination, Congress stands united

Party sources said Kher was in Dubai, while Tandon was in Delhi.

Congress candidate Poonam Sharma with former city MP Pawan Kumar Bansal and other leaders at MC’s Sector 17 office on Friday. (Source: Express photo by Sumit Malhotra)

While the Congress presented a united front, BJP city president Sanjay Tandon and party MP Kirron Kher skipped the filing of nominations by the candidates for the mayoral elections on Friday.

Party sources said Kher was in Dubai, while Tandon was in Delhi. Reached on phone, Tandon said he had appointments with the Prime Minister and the party president, fixed in advance. BJP sources said he had gone to Delhi to invite them for his son’s wedding later this month.

The Congress has fielded Poonam Sharma while the BJP has chosen Hira Negi over Tandon’s choice Asha Jaswal for the post of mayor. Negi has their backing.

Story continues below this ad

From the Congress, besides Poonam Sharma, senior deputy mayoral candidate Satish Kainth and deputy mayoral candidate Gurbax Rawat filed nominations before Joint Commissioner Rajiv Gupta in the presence of city president B B Bahl and former union minister Pawan Kumar Bansal.

Negi filed her nomination along with senior deputy mayoral candidate Rajesh Gupta (Bittu) and deputy mayoral candidate Davesh Moudgil for the elections, which are scheduled for January 6. Senior BJP leaders Harmohan Dhawan and former MP Satya Pal Jain were present. The internal conflict in the party came to the fore when BJP workers raised slogans in support of Kirron Kher and Harmohan Dhawan, but not Tandon.

Tandon said he had informed his party colleagues about his engagements in Delhi. He denied he was upset over the selection of Hira Negi.

“When Kirron Kher was given the ticket for the Lok Sabha election, I fully supported her. During the selection process of mayoral candidates, I never took the side of any individual. I always maintained that two names were under consideration and one of them was chosen,” he said.

Story continues below this ad

Bansal criticised the BJP for indulging in horse-trading. In the last few months, the BJP has won over three Congress councillors, namely Raj Bala Malik, Sat Parkash Aggarwal and Kashmiri Devi, thereby reducing the Congress strength in the corporation to nine.

The former minister said, “If they had any moral consideration, they should have asked these councillors to resign and contest again on the BJP ticket. We have no anti-defection law in the civic bodies, and the BJP took advantage of it.’’ He expressed hope that the nominated councillors would take note of the BJP’s tactics. He said it was the Congress which made a law to give the voting right to nominated councilors, while the BJP was against it and an appeal in this regard by a BJP member was still pending in the high court.

Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram