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Rinki Walia wins race for the Naraingarh municipal committee president
Rinki Walia beat BJP’s Pritpal Kaur and AAP candidate, who forfeited the deposit, to be elected the Naraingarh municipal committee president
Wife of former chairperson Amit Walia and independent candidate, Rinki Walia was on Wednesday elected as the new president of the Naraingarh municipal committee of Ambala district.
The 32-year-old defeated Bhartiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Pritpal Kaur Makkar by a margin of 1,061 votes and clinched the post after five rounds of counting that ended around 11.30 pm.
Out of 12,494 votes polled in the elections, Walia claimed 4,115 (32.9%) votes ahead of runner-up Kaur’s 3,054 (24.4%).
Local Congress leadership had announced support to Walia and another independent candidate, Mamta Rani, days before the voting. Rani, whose husband Desh Bandhu Jindal is Congress’ urban president of the town, stood third with 2.701 votes.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Anita Devi, a BJP-turncoat, secured 1,124 votes forfeited her security deposit, as did Bahujan Samaj Party’s Kamla Devi (955), Indian National Lok Dal’s Amita Sahni (255) and Shailza Sharma (180). A total of 110 voters also opted for NOTA.
Of the total 15 wards, AAP — which had fielded four candidates in total — candidate Balu Ram won from ward number 10, while the rest were won by independents. The BJP did not contest on the party symbol.
Clean water a top priority: President-elect
The president-elect is a graduate in Bachelor of Science and has also done a Bachelor of Education. She is a mother of two children and a homemaker.
Amit Walia had been the president of the committee from 2012-15 with the support of Congress. Two presidents have served as the chairpersons since.
After winning the elections, Rinki Walia thanked residents for their support and promised to complete the pending development works of the town. “The biggest problem that I came across during campaigning is the clean and regular supply of drinking water. This will be my topmost priority apart from solving other problems,” she said.
On being asked about future alliance with any party, Amit Walia said, “No doubt, Ramkishanji supported me, but we will decide whether to come under a party-fold or remain independent after meeting our supporters. We will make efforts to make Naraingarh a district.”
Located nearly 40 km from district headquarters, Naraingarh is the home turf of Kurukshetra Member of Parliament Naib Singh Saini and Congress working president and former chief parliamentary secretary (CPS) Ram Kishan Gujjar.
