BJP image hit: Kainth to Shah

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 16

Satish Kainth, the rebel candidate of the BJP for the post of Mayor, today wrote to the party president, Amit Shah, requesting him to withdraw the decision of fielding Rajesh Kalia for the post.

In the letter, Kainth stated, “I am a hard worker (karyakarta) of the BJP and was elected as a councillor in 2016. I am from the SC category and had been working to uplift the SC/ST/OBC community, following the path shown by Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji. These days, the city BJP is going through a shameful phase as the local unit of the party decided to pick Rajesh Kalia for the post of Mayor. Kalia is involved in many bad activities and facing cases. Articles highlighting his tainted past are being published in local newspapers (annexed).”

He added, “Chandigarh is inhabited by educated people. I request all senior leaders to withdraw Rajesh Kalia’s nomination for the post of Mayor as city residents are/will not be accepting him.”

Kainth wrote that many party councillors were backing him. “The party vice president, Prabhat Jha, got to know this when he had visited the city to select the Mayor candidate. In view of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, I request you to save the party’s image from being tarnished further,” the BJP councillor stated.

Nomination unfortunate: Manish Tewari

• Former Union Minister and senior Congress leader Manish Tewari has termed the BJP’s mayoral nomination as unfortunate. He said by fielding Rajesh Kalia, a candidate with tainted past, the BJP exposed its true character. 
• Tewari held a meeting with party workers at the Sector 19 community centre here on Wednesday. Addressing the gathering, he asked the workers to prepare for the next parliamentary elections. 
• The Congress leader said he was always available to the party workers and people. He also assigned duties to the core team to prepare for the impending elections.