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BJP, Congress drop tainted councillors
Not willing to take a chance, the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have decided not to give tickets to eight municipal councillors who were caught in a sting operation on politician-builder mafia nexus. Atul Mathur reports.
Not willing to take a chance, the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have decided not to give tickets to eight municipal councillors who were caught in a sting operation on politician-builder mafia nexus.
The eight municipal councillors - six from BJP and two from Congress - were suspended by their respective parties almost immediately after the sting was aired on TV in the first week of December 2011. Both parties even started individual inquiries into the incident.
Office-bearers of both parties said the tainted councillors were not being considered for tickets in the upcoming municipal polls in the Capital.
The councillors include Sateshwari Joshi (Vinod Nagar), Anita Koli (Pooth Kalan, Rohini), Ravi Prakash Sharma (Preet Vihar), Subhash Jain (Kardampuri), Ajeet Singh Tokas (Munirka) and Manju Gupta (Nand Nagri) of the BJP and Jaishree Pawar (Shahpur Jat) and Beena Thakuriya (Ambedkar Nagar) of the Congress.
Congress councillor Pawar has also been mayor of Delhi.
Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Jai Prakash Aggarwal said the clean image of the aspirant was one of the pre-requisites for being considered as a candidates.
"If there are allegations of corruption, we will not give a ticket. I know all councillors and except the two (who were caught in a sting operation), all others have a clean reputation. They will certainly be in the race for tickets," Aggarwal said.
BJP leaders said they have also adopted a policy of "zero tolerance" towards corruption and will not allow tainted candidates to contest the elections.
"The six councillors who were caught in the sting are not going to get tickets. We believe in transparency and weeding out corruption. There is no place for tainted (leaders)," BJP Delhi president Vijender Gupta said.
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