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Civic poll debacle stirs up Congress

Rajesh Ahuja

Party leaders question the selection of nominees for Chandigarh civic elections

CHANDIGARH: Even as senior Congress leaders, including Union Minister of State for Finance Pawan Kumar Bansal, are drawing some solace from the victory of the party nominee from Ward No.7 in the recent by-election to the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, several party workers are pressing for an introspection to find out how and why the party fared badly in the Corporation polls which culminated in the election of Shiromani Akali Dal's Harjinder Kaur as the city Mayor.

Interestingly, by winning the Ward No.7 seat by 104 votes, the Congress now has 13 councillors and the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP-Chandigarh Vikas Manch combine 12 councillors in the Municipal Corporation. One seat was bagged by the Bahujan Samaj Party. Nine nominated members besides Mr. Bansal have voting rights in the House.

Even though Mr. Bansal later told media persons that Ms. Kaur bagged the Mayor's post for one year with the support of at least some nominated members, the question being asked in party circles is why these members, who were nominated by the Chandigarh Administration in apparent consultation with Mr. Bansal, voted against the Congress nominee for Mayor, Anu Chatrath.

Insiders say that had there not been "cross-voting'' for Senior Mayor and Deputy Mayor, these key posts would also have fallen into the Opposition's kitty. Several party office-bearers have questioned the manner in which the Congress nominees were selected by Mr. Bansal and the Chandigarh Congress unit president B. B. Bahl without even constituting a Pradesh Election Committee.

They charge that this "arbitrary manner'' of selecting candidates was followed to give the tickets to "some favourites'' most of whom eventually lost in the battle of the hustings.

Talking to this correspondent, a party worker said that the denial of ticket to candidates belonging to important communities like Balmikis and Muslims had also proved detrimental to the party's prospects and it was an alarming signal that the traditional base in the colonies was largely eroded and the maximum mileage was gained by the BJP, the Chandigarh Vikas Manch and the BSP. Another worker said on the point of anonymity that the party high command which had allotted the tickets should take due cognisance of the election results and seriously probe why the party's mass base has started eroding instead of drawing solace that it has one more seat than the Opposition.

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Civic poll debacle stirs up Congress

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