From homemaker to Chandigarh mayor, meet BJP’s Harpreet Babla

“I will work collaboratively with everyone and do my best to resolve the city’s issues,” said Harpreet Babla, who won by a margin of two votes against the AAP-Congress alliance candidate Prem Lata, despite the ruling combine having the majority in the general house of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. While Harpreet Babla got 19 votes, Prem Lata got 17 votes.

Harpreet Babla, a resident of Sector 27, was an active member of the Congress before joining the BJP in January 2022, along with her husband Devinder Singh Babla after the civic polls. A homemaker-turned-politician, she has been elected twice as a councillor, winning with the highest margin of votes in both terms.

Known as a social worker, too, she is an alumnus of the Convent of Jesus and Mary in Dehradun and has earned a BA Honours in history and an MA in English. Her husband Devinder Singh Babla is the vice president of the BJP in Chandigarh and a two-time former councillor. He had also served as leader of the Opposition in the municipal corporation and chairman of the market committee in Chandigarh.

Harpreet has two sons: Yudhveer Singh Babla, who is engaged in the real estate business in Tricity, and Paramveer Singh Babla, who is the youngest executive member of the Chandigarh Club. Her father is an ex-serviceman who retired as a colonel from the Army.