BJP councillors asked to write down names

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 30

To avoid the chances of infighting, BJP National General Secretary Dushyant Gautam today asked all 20 BJP councillors in the city to write down the names of their choice for the post of the Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor candidates, besides collecting their biodata for the mayoral poll on January 8.

The Chandigarh BJP in-charge, who was accompanied by Pawan Sharma, co-incharge, Assam, also met office-bearers and core committee members at the Sector 33 party office. The meeting that started at 3 pm lasted till the evening.

All councilors were asked to submit two names each for the three posts. Their resumes were also taken. Gautam will now convey the feedback to the party high command that will take the final call.

At present, councillors Arun Sood, Shakti Prakash Devshali, Maheshinder Singh Sidhu and Ravi Kant Sharma are the front runners.

Sources said since Sood was already the Chandigarh BJP president, many councillors were against his name for the post of the Mayor. The sources said Sood suggested the name of councillor and former Mayor Asha Jaswal. A councillor said Sood was making all efforts to pitch either his name or Jaswal’s name. “There are still chances of rebellion in the party. Anything may happen on the nomination day,” said the councillor.

Meanwhile, Gautam said: “I have taken the views of all and after consultation with the higher-ups, the names of the candidates will be announced.” It is expected the names will be declared on January 4, the last date of nominations.

Sood said: “The in-charge and Pawan Sharma met about 70 party members today.”

Former BJP MP Satya Pal Jain and former BJP president Sanjay Tandon also met them. Meanwhile, MP Kirron Kher was not present.