Now Dhawan: Mismanagement, cross-voting led to embarrassing defeat in mayoral poll

Sources said that he would take a delegation of party workers to apprise the central leadership of his views on the embarrassing defeat.

Dhawan, a former MP from Chandigarh in 1989, was under attack from the local leadership, allegedly for causing the party’s defeat by annoying BSP leader Jannat Jahan by threatening her husband just before the election. The BSP had two votes in the general house. Besides, the local leadership is also blaming MP Kirron Kher for picking “the wrong candidate’’ for the mayor’s post.

Reacting to the allegations, Dhawan said that he was unnecessarily being targeted by those who wanted to hide their “shameful role’’ in the mayoral elections.

“With 15 members in house, the party was in a comfortable position to win, but it is quite evident from the dismal results as well as the statements of all senior leaders that two or three BJP councillors voted against the party’s candidates which led to our defeat,” said Dhawan.

He added that Satya Pal Jain, Kirron Kher and three ex-presidents of the Chandigarh unit had blamed party city president Sanjay Tandon, who had not won even a single mayoral election in his five-year-long tenure.

“He is the only one denying cross-voting in this election, whereas everyone else has strongly blamed dirty politics behind the party’s debacle. This shows how isolated he is now,” said Dhawan, adding that the party’s loss was unexpected and “we need corrective action’’.

Senior leaders speaking  out of turn: Tandon

Reacting to Dhawan’s allegations, Sanjay Tandon said that senior leaders were speaking out of turn and giving their personal reaction, which needed to be conveyed to the party high command. “Everyone within the system understands what went wrong in the mayoral elections. There is no point in indulging in a blame game,’’ said Tandon, adding that “success has many fathers, but failure has none’’.