Assembly elections: BJP picks Ambala Mayor for Kalka seat

Two days after she joined the party, Ambala Municipal Corporation Mayor Shakti Rani Sharma is now BJP pick for the Kalka Assembly seat. The BJP today released a list of 67 candidates, including Shakti from Kalka and Speaker Gian Chand Gupta from Panchkula.

Shakti, wife of Jan Chetna Party (JCP) chief and former Union Cabinet minister Venod Sharma, had joined the BJP during a rally in Jind. She had contested the 2014 Assembly elections from the JCP from Kalka and polled only 7,661 votes. The BJP’s Latika Sharma had won the election.

After her meeting with BJP president Jagat Prakash Nadda on Wednesday, Shakti posted on her Facebook account: “Today, I received guidance from National President JP Nadda in Delhi. The national president welcomed me with the party’s scarf. I was impressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s effort to take welfare schemes to the rural level. Rajya Sabha MP Kartikeya Sharma was also present with us.”

Her son, Kartikeya Sharma is a Rajya Sabha MP.

Before the final list was released in the evening, party workers, including Kalka Ward Number 2 councillor Goldy Valmiki, in a statement, said they wanted a local person to contest the election from the constituency, not an outsider.

Panchkula MLA and Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta has been picked for the Panchkula seat for a third consecutive time. Gupta has been the Panchkula MLA for 10 years and has served as Assembly Speaker for five years. He has been BJP Mayor of Chandigarh. He was appointed vice-president of Haryana BJP and chief whip from 2016 to 2019.