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9 nominated councillors to Chandigarh MC named, all affiliated to BJP
Satinder Singh Sidhu and Dr Naresh Panchal are BJP district presidents, Amit Jindal is a member of the BJP finance committee, Anil Masih is BJP’s general secretary minority morcha while Dharminder Saini is president of BJP Kissan Morcha
Ten months after the formation of the Chandigarh municipal corporation, UT administrator Banwari Lal Purohit on Tuesday finally announced nine nominated councillors to House. All nine have strong BJP affiliations.
Satinder Singh Sidhu and Dr Naresh Panchal are BJP district presidents, Amit Jindal is a member of the BJP finance committee, Anil Masih is BJP’s general secretary minority morcha while Dharminder Saini is president of BJP Kissan Morcha.
The others include Geeta Chauhan, a social worker and close aide of former BJP councillor Vinod Agarwal, Dr Ramneek Singh Bedi, vice-president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and a BJP aide, Mohinder Kaur, a former government school teacher who is believed to be close to BJP’s city unit president Arun Sood, and Umesh Ghai, senior vice-chairman of the Chandigarh Residents’ Association Welfare Federation (CRAWFED), also a close aide of Sood. AAP’s Chandigarh unit president Prem Garg reacted to the development, stating, “It is a murder of democracy. They have adjusted all politicians from BJP, whereas, people of eminence having expertise in various fields should have been nominated.
No voting rights for nominated councillors
Till January 2017, nominated councillors had voting rights in mayoral polls and they played an important role in electing the mayor, senior deputy mayor, and deputy mayor, but in January 2018, Punjab and Haryana high court annulled their voting rights. The matter is pending in the Supreme Court. As per Section 4 of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1994, extended to Chandigarh, nominated councillors should be experienced in civic body governance or be eminent personalities in their field of expertise.
In the House of 35 elected councillors, 14 each are from BJP and AAP, while six are from Congress and one from Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
