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Chandigarh MC House: Congress declares Babla its mayoral candidate
Babla, who is serving his second term as a councillor, is currently the leader of opposition in the House, and also holds the post of general secretary in Chandigarh Congress.
Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) remains undecided over its choice of candidate for MC mayoral elections, the Congress on Thursday named Devinder Singh Babla as its contender.
Babla, who is serving his second term as a councillor, is currently the leader of opposition in the House, and also holds the post of general secretary in Chandigarh Congress.
In the mayoral election scheduled to be held on January 8, the Congress candidate for senior deputy mayor post will be Ravinder Kaur Gujral and for the deputy mayor’s post, Satish Kainth has been chosen.
The prospects of a Congress candidate getting elected are negligible as the party has only five councillors in the House of 26. The BJP has 20 councilors, while the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has one. The sitting MP of the city – who is currently a leader owing allegiance to the saffron party– also has one vote in mayoral elections.
In 2020 election, Raj Bala Malik had polled 22 votes out of the total 27. This time around, the SAD is likely to be absent from voting in the election.
BJP has prevailed in the last four mayoral elections. With MC elections due in November-December 2021, this will be last mayoral election before the term of current MC House ends.
The BJP is set to declare its nominees for the posts of mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor on January 4, the last date for filling nominations.
On December 30, BJP national general secretary and state party in-charge Dushyant Gautam met all 20 BJP councillors at the party’s city headquarters, Kamalam, in Sector 33.
During their one-on-one meeting with Gautam, the councillors were asked to suggest two names each for the three posts - mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor. Their resumes were also taken. Gautam also met party workers, former BJP MP Satya Pal Jain and former president Sanjay Tandon.
