Kirron Kher out as BJP picks Sanjay Tandon from Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat

The announcement about Sanjay Tandon’s candidacy came as a surprise to various factions within the Chandigarh BJP.

The BJP on Wednesday dropped two-time sitting Member of Parliament Kirron Kher and picked Sanjay Tandon as its candidate from the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat.

Sanjay Tandon, 60, is the son of a BJP leader from Punjab and former governor of Chattisgarh Balramji Das Tandon. The resident of Sector 18 has been the longest-serving Bharatiya Janata Party Chandigarh president — from 2010 to 2019 — as well.

The announcement came as a surprise to various factions within the Chandigarh BJP which were trying hard for a “local candidate” to be pitched, with party leaders Sanjay Tandon, former president Arun Sood, and several others trying their luck. Some were even against Tandon, who is also the co-incharge of Himachal Pradesh BJP, being chosen as the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat candidate. Interestingly, the local committee had not even sent Kirron Kher’s name.

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Tandon had been trying for a ticket for a long time, however, due to internal factionalism, the BJP fielded parachute candidate actor-turned-politician Kirron Kher in Chandigarh in the Lok Sabha election 2014. Though Kher has maintained she is from Chandigarh and has a house in Sector 8, internal groups within the BJP always called her an “outsider”.

Kher got 1.91 lakh votes and defeated Congress leader Pawan Kumar Bansal who got 1.21 lakh votes in the 2014 general election. The AAP candidate Gul Panag fared well as she got 1.08 lakh votes in Chandigarh.

In 2019, the BJP once again nominated Kirron Kher, and she won with 2.31 lakh votes while Bansal got 1.84 lakh votes. In 2019, the Aam Aadmi Party’s share of votes came down significantly with just 3 per cent of all which is 13,781 votes only that went to Harmohan Dhawan.

Before 2014, Pawan Bansal represented Chandigarh in the Lok Sabha for three consecutive terms.

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Voting in the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat will be held on June 1 and the votes will be counted on June 4.

Hina Rohtaki

Hina Rohtaki is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express, Chandigarh. She covers Chandigarh administration and other cross beats. In this field for over a decade now, she has also received the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award by the President of India in January 2020. She tweets @HinaRohtaki ... Read More

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