Jolt to Congress, Sonepat Mayor to join BJP today

Mukesh Tandon

Sonepat, July 10

In a setback to the Congress just ahead of the Assembly poll, Nikhil Madaan, first Mayor of Sonepat, will join the BJP on Thursday in Delhi along with his supporters.

The Mayor will join the BJP at Haryana Bhawan in the presence of former Chief Minister and Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini and newly appointed BJP’s state president Mohan Lal Badoli.

The decision of the Mayor came to the fore just a day after the BJP appointed Rai MLA Mohan Lal Badoli as the BJP’s state president.

Madaan had become the first Mayor of Sonepat town after winning the mayoral poll on Congress ticket in 2020. He had defeated the BJP-JJP coalition candidate Lalit Batra by a margin of 13,817 votes in the MC poll, which had been held for the first time after municipal council Sonepat was upgraded to a Municipal Corporation by the then Congress government in 2015. Madaan was considered to be an aide of Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda.