The Jalandhar Municipal Corporation is likely to get its new Mayor by Saturday and the name of Aam Aadmi Party's Vaneet Dhir is almost final.

Dhir had won from Ward no. 62 with a huge margin of 3,596 votes, perhaps the highest from any ward in the entire state in the recent civic body elections. His wife Shweta Dhir had been a councillor from the same ward (then Ward no. 77) in the previous MC House on the BJP ticket. She too had then won with 1,800 votes but Vaneet made the margin double this time.

A businessman and staunch RSS worker, Dhir had twice made an entry into AAP in the past nearly two years. He had left the BJP to join AAP during the tenure of previous Local Bodies Minister Inderbir S Nijjer. Later, as ex-MP Sushil Rinku had left AAP and joined the saffron party, he too had moved back. However, just ahead of the MC poll held last month, Dhir was back in the AAP.

Vaneet's father Prof Vinod K Dhir has served as the Vice-Principal in Arya College at Ludhiana. He too had studied in the same college pursuing Diploma in Computer Applications and Business Management. For the past nearly 25 years, he is running businesses in Jalandhar. He is an importer and deals in wall papers and home decor products. He also runs a signage manufacturing business for the leading corporates. He also runs C & F for the ACC adhesives division.

Known to be in the policy-making teams and the planning for electioneering in the BJP, the AAP leadership considers him to be the best choice to lead Jalandhar in civic matters. Since his wife was a councillor, he too is well-versed with the nuances of working in the Municipal Corporation.

A meeting of all AAP MLAs and halqa incharges from Jalandhar was convened by AAP state president Aman Arora in Chandigarh today. The leaders have been asked to prepare for the mayoral elections on coming Saturday.

Even though AAP insiders gave clear hints about his name, Dhir maintained that he was still pushing his case and hoping for the best. The names of Ashwani Aggarwal, Mukesh Sethi, Dinesh Dhall, Aruna Arora and Deepak Sharda had also been doing the rounds earlier. They still stand a chance for the posts of Deputy Mayor and Senior Deputy Mayor.