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PCA chief’s son likely AAP’s choice for Bathinda MC’s top post
AAP has only one councillor, Padamjeet Mehta, who won on the party ticket whereas seven councillors from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Congress joined the party wagon in the last few months.
After getting its candidates elected as mayors of Amritsar and Phagwara in the last one week, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is now eyeing to capture the top seat of the Bathinda municipal corporation (MC), which is poised to elect a new mayor on Feb 5.
AAP has only one councillor, Padamjeet Mehta, who won on the party ticket whereas seven councillors from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Congress joined the party wagon in the last few months.
Raman Goyal, a confidante of the former finance minister Manpreet Badal, who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after quitting the Congress, was removed from the post on November 16, 2023, after she failed in the no-confidence test brought by her former colleagues in the Congress.
The top civic post has been lying vacant since then.
AAP has not yet disclosed its nominee for the mayoral post but Padamjeet Mehta, son of Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) president and AAP leader Amarjeet Mehta, is seen as the party’s choice.
Padamjeet was elected as a councillor from ward number 48 in the bypoll held in December last year. He will take the oath on February 5.
The Congress has a majority in the 50-member House, but the party leadership is not confident to get its leader elected due to a sharp division in the party.
Earlier, senior deputy mayor and senior Congressman Ashok Kumar was keen to be the mayoral candidate. But the party sources expressed surprise when he told the Congress leadership his decision to back out from the race.
Bathinda was always a political bastion of the former SAD-BJP alliance. In 2021, it was the first time that the Congress had managed to get a majority in the largest local body of the south Malwa region.
About 10 councillors, including six who were expelled from the Congress, are considered to have an allegiance to the Manpreet Badal camp whereas about 26 councillors claim themselves as Congress leaders.
A moneybag entrepreneur from Bathinda, Amarjeet Mehta is working hard on the ground to get the support of councillors from different parties and political camps for his son, a postgraduate from London University, elected as the mayor.
The AAP legislator from Bathinda Urban Jagroop Singh Gill has been a vocal critical of the Mehtas and the MLA had announced to stay away from the municipal bypolls held two months ago.
However, Mehta did not respond to the calls.
Senior AAP leader and party spokesperson Neel Garg said on Sunday that the party may announce the mayoral nominee on Tuesday evening or on the election day on February 5.
“Anti-defection rules are not implemented in the mayoral polls, and we are confident that the councillors will back the AAP candidate. AAP is for the development of the city,” said Garg.
District Congress president Rajan Garg said that the party has 2-3 candidates for the mayoral post and a nominee would be finalised soon.
“A total of 26 Congress councillors have expressed unity and we hope that a party candidate will again occupy the mayoral office,” he added.
