Posts of Mayor, president: Kin of leaders make it to Congress list
As the Congress braces for another electoral battle against the ruling BJP after last year’s Assembly election debacle, sons, daughters, and wives of senior Congress leaders have secured nominations for key mayoral and municipal president posts.
The urban local body elections are being held for eight Municipal Corporations, four Municipal Councils, and 21 Municipal Committees. In addition, byelections for the mayoral seats of Ambala and Sonepat have been necessitated following the election of the incumbents to the Vidhan Sabha.
Hooda faction has upper hand
In the first list of candidates for mayoral poll across key municipalities, the faction led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda appears to have gained the upper hand
In the first list of candidates for mayoral poll across these key municipalities, the faction led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda, a former CM, appears to have gained the upper hand.
For the Sonepat mayoral byelection, the party has nominated Kamal Dewan, son of two-time MLA Dev Raj Dewan. A prominent Punjabi face, Kamal is set to go head-to-head with BJP’s Rajiv Jain, a former media adviser to the CM.
In Ambala, the party has fielded Amisha Chawla, who contested the 2020 mayoral elections on a Haryana Democratic Front (HDF) ticket and finished third. She is the wife of former Congress leader Dalip Chawla, who has since passed away.
Shakti Rani Sharma, who had originally won on a Haryana Jan Chetna Party ticket, switched to the BJP and secured a win from Kalka in the 2024 Assembly poll.
In Yamunanagar, the Congress has nominated Kiran Devi, wife of former MLA Rajpal Bukhari, who has strategically maintained ties with both the Hooda and Selja camps.
For the president’s post in Pataudi Jatauli Mandi, Raj Rani, wife of Congress leader Sudhir Kumar Chaudhary, has been named. Chaudhary had unsuccessfully contested the 2024 Assembly poll from Pataudi.
In Sirsa Municipal Council, a close aide of Congress MLA Gokul Setia, Jaswinder Kaur, daughter of former municipal committee chairman Sukhwinder Kaur Gill, has been selected, while for the Manesar mayor post, the party has put forward Neeraj Yadav, related to former zila parishad chairman Krishan Yadav.
In Rohtak, a stronghold of Hooda, the party has chosen three-time councillor Suraj Mal to contest for the mayor’s post. Meanwhile, in Karnal, the party has fielded former deputy mayor Manoj Wadhwa, who had unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Assembly election on an INLD ticket against former CM Manohar Lal Khattar. Wadhwa’s political trajectory has been marked by shifting allegiances—after his 2014 loss, he joined the BJP but returned to Congress before the 2024 Lok Sabha election. His wife, Asha, had also contested the last mayoral election in December 2018 against BJP’s Renu Bala Gupta, losing narrowly.
Gurugram’s mayoral contest will see two-time councillor Seema Pahuja carrying the Congress banner. She joined the Congress in the afternoon and got the ticket by the evening.
In Hisar, the party has placed its confidence in Krishan Singla, a close aide of Hisar MP Jai Prakash. In Thanesar, Sunita Nehra is candidate for municipal president poll.
