Ambala mayor post reserved for women candidate from BC(B) category

The decision was taken during a meeting headed by Panipat DC Virender Dahiya at the Directorate of Urban Local Bodies in Panchkula

The mayor post of Ambala municipal corporation (MC) has been reserved for women candidates from Backward Class Block-B category following a draw of lots on Thursday.

Posts in Panchkula and Sonepat were declared unreserved. (File)

The decision was taken during a meeting headed by Panipat DC Virender Dahiya at the Directorate of Urban Local Bodies in Panchkula. Posts in Panchkula and Sonepat were declared unreserved.

Earlier, BJP was holding all the posts and their tenure ended earlier this month.

Except for Panchkula where Kulbhushan Goyal managed to complete his five-year term in office, both Ambala and Sonepat witnessed bypolls as both the mayors were elected as BJP MLA’s.

Shakti Rani Sharma, who was Ambala mayor, and Sonepat mayor Nikhil Madaan were elected as BJP MLA’s from Kalka and Sonepat, respectively, in November polls 2024.

Following the election, the mayor seats fell vacant and during the bypolls in March 2025, the saffron party candidates Shailja Sachdeva (Ambala) and Rajiv Jain (Sonepat) became new mayors.

Political observers believe that it will not be a cakewalk for the BJP in Ambala, where both -- MP Varun Chaudhary and MLA Nirmal Singh are from the Congress, which will go the extra mile to claim the post, given its newly revamped organisation structure.

Officials said that based on rotation and the highest percentage of Scheduled Caste (SC) population, the post of chairperson in Rewari MC was declared reserved for SC, where woman candidate can contest.

Subsequently, in the remaining posts in Sampla, Uklana and Dharuhera, the post of chairperson of Uklana municipality was declared reserved for general women through a draw of lots.