On Nehru’s birth anniversary, rift in Chandigarh Cong comes to the fore

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 14

Differences in the city Congress has come out in the open with two factions, led by former railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and ex-information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari, celebrated the birth anniversary of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru by holding separate rallies.

One of the rallies was organised at Mani Majra where Tewari’s supporters advocated for his candidature for the Chandigarh parliamentary seat in the forthcoming elections. At a rally in Ram Darbar, Bansal’s supporters termed him the undisputed leader of the city Congress.

Wasim Mir, Gurbachan Singh, Dayal Pratap Randhawa, Imran Mansuri, Ashok Kumar and others party leaders were present at the Mani Majra meeting. They claimed that public was seeing Tewari as a political alternative to the city since he has been taking up public welfare issues at appropriate level. Addressing the rally, Tewari said Pandit Nehru’s dream to build a modern India could only be realised when children were provided better education.

At Ram Darbar, the Chandigarh Congress paid homage to the first Prime Minister of India. Addressing the rally, city Congress president Pradeep Chhabra said Bansal was the undisputed leader of the city Congress as he took the development in the city to a new height. 

Rampal Sharma, Devinder Singh Babla, Ajay joshi, Harmohinder Singh Lucky, Sandeep Bhardwaj, Bhupinder Singh Badheri, Gurpreet Happy, Rakesh Sharma, Jeet Singh, Shashi Shankar Tiwari were among the leaders present.

On the occasion, Bansal said Chandigarh was the vision of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru. The city has received international fame and is a world heritage site.