Batala, March 23
A revolt is brewing within the ruling SAD-BJP alliance with former Qadian legislator Lakhbir Singh Lodhinangal backing a group of Municipal Councillors who are gunning for the removal of the Batala Municipal Council (MC) president and BJP loyalist Ambika Khanna.
Ambika is the daughter of former MLA Jagdeesh Sahni who severed his ties with the BJP to join the Congress just before the Assembly elections. With both the father-daughter duo in different political dispensations, the family was facing heat from its opponents with its main challenger being Lodhinangal who, while contesting on a SAD ticket from Batala, lost the recent elections to Ashwani Sekhri of the Congress.
Apart from the president, the MC has a house of 31 councillors out of which 23 are with the SAD-BJP combine, while the other seven are aligned with the Congress.
In what appears to be an open rebellion, the SAD-BJP councillors have now moved a no-confidence motion against their president accusing her of financial and administrative mismanagement.
They are openly being backed by former MLA LS Lodhinangal, who claimed that as per MC rules, it was mandatory for the House to hold one meeting every month. “However, she has not called a meeting for the last three months and on Thursday she again deliberately postponed the proceedings in which the Budget was slated to be discussed,” he claimed.
The Councillors have sent copies of the notice to Secretary and Director, Local Bodies Department and the Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner.
Meanwhile, a war of words has erupted between Lodhinangal and Ambika with the former claiming that the president should put in her papers following charges of corruption. “The MC received a grant of Rs 8 crore in December last year from the State government and I would like to know where the money has gone. I demand a Vigilance Inquiry into the alleged financial bungling that is taking place in the MC under her stewardship. Moreover, her father is in the Congress and she is the BJP which has made the family a laughing stock among residents” Lodhinangal claimed.
On the other hand Ambika fired a salvo against the former legislator by saying that “he is a frustrated man as he lost the assembly elections to the Congress candidate Ashwani Sekhri, who was backed by my father, by nearly 19,000 votes.”
To this Lodhinangal replied that Ambika had no locus-standi to speak on any issue as “she had lost the confidence of her own party men in the House.”
