Jalandhar Central: 10 councillors want Rajinder Beri's replacement with Jagdish Raja

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 2

At least 10 municipal corporation councillors have come out against sitting Jalandhar Central Congress MLA Rajinder Beri and demanded that his candidature be replaced by Mayor Jagdish Raja.

There are 22 wards in the Jalandhar Central constituency of which 19 are represented by the Congress in the present MC House. Of the 19, Jasleen Sethi, who is also the District Women Congress chief, is also seeking a ticket from the party for the seat. Of the remaining 18, one ward is represented by Beri’s wife Uma Beri.

There are some fence-sitters who have not come out openly in support of either of the two, but among those who intend to carry forward the campaign in favour of Mayor Raja include his wife Anita Raja, Vipan Chadha, Gurwinder Bunty Neelkanth, Manmohan Raju, Mandeep Jassal, Jagdish Gag and Bimla Rani Dakoha. The councillors said Neelam Kumari too is with them, but she could not join today due to being out of city.

Councillors Pawan Kumar and Tarsem Lakhotra, who represent Jalandhar Cantt and Jalandhar West constituencies, respectively, have also come out in support of Raja. Notably, DCC working president Vijay Dakoha too has raised a voice against Beri. The councillors said in the coming days they would surely meet senior party leaders in Chandigarh to discuss the matter.

Interestingly, it was Beri who had taken up the cudgels to get Raja elected as the Mayor in 2018, but now the latter has turned the tides against once his more supportive MLA. The 10 councillors had

reportedly been annoyed with Beri for the last over two and a half months over development works in their areas and Raja had been insisting for a meeting with them.

Even today as the councillors raised the issue against Beri, Mayor Raja was with them. Jagdish Raja said, “I am with my councillors. I will do whatever they ask me to do.”

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