E-Paper
Harmohinder Singh Lucky picked as new Chandigarh Congress president
The development comes only a day after veteran Congress leader Subhash Chawla resigned from the post
Former deputy mayor Harmohinder Singh Lucky, 48, has been appointed as the new Chandigarh Congress president. The development comes only a day after veteran Congress leader Subhash Chawla resigned from the post.
A lawyer by qualification, Lucky started his political career as a student leader from DAV College, Sector 10, and served as the president of the Chandigarh units of the National Student Union of India, the Youth Congress and the district Congress. He has also been a member of the Panjab University senate and syndicate twice.
However, he lost the last two municipal corporation elections to Bharatiya Janata Party’s Maheshinder Singh Sidhu. Lucky was holding the position of general secretary and chief spokesperson of Chandigarh Territorial Congress Committee before being appointed as the party’s city chief.
Considered a close confidant of former Union minister and All India Congress Committee treasurer Pawan Kumar Bansal, Lucky said his priorities will be to strengthen the party in Chandigarh and take up various issues of public concern.
“The Congress organisation in Chandigarh will be made robust and geared up for the 2024 parliamentary polls. All Congressmen who have somehow remained neglected will be brought back to the party fold,” said Lucky.
Party in turmoil
The task is cut out for the new Congress city president, known for aggressive style, with the grand old party plagued by internal strife and party leaders leaving it in droves.
With the party consistently losing ground to the saffron fold, it has been a tough going for the last two Congress presidents.
Soon after Subash Chawla’s appointment in February 2021, his predecessor, Pardeep Chhabra, had joined the AAP, along with some leaders, while blaming Bansal. The party could never emerge from the subsequent damage and eventually lost the December 2021 civic polls to the AAP and the BJP. A major opposition party in Chandigarh previously, the Congress could get win only eight of the 35 seats in the MC House.
The party’s downfall continued as immediately after its civil poll drubbing, party’s councilor Harpreet Kaur Babla, along with her husband, Devinder Singh Babla, a former Congress councillor, joined the BJP after a public spat with Chawla.
Four days ago, Congress councillor from ward 20, Gurcharan Jeet Singh Kala, also changed party loyalties and joined the BJP, days after a number of senior party functionaries ditched the party and joined hands with the BJP.
With Kala’s move, BJP’s numbers in the MC House rose to 14, equal to AAP, while that of Congress decreased further to six. MC’s election loss, second in a row, came after Bansal also lost two MP elections in 2014 and 2019 to BJP’s Kirron Kher.
Party insiders say the new president will have to start from the scratch to win the 2024 parliamentary polls as AAP’s entry has further made things worse for the party’s prospects.
